Woman Buries Stillborn in Patio
The excuse that Rosibel del Carmen Jarquín Mendoza gave her brother when he learned that the young woman had buried her still born child in the patio was hair-raising.

"As I went into labour and it was dead, I buried it in the patio because that is what other was accustomed to doing in Nicaragua. What you don't remember now?" was the answer the 23 year old woman, who is mother of two children, she gave her brother.

The woman lives in Santa Rica de Río Cuatro in Grecia, west of San José and according to the brother is the second time she has aborted.

"I swear I didn't take anything, it was dead when it was born. I swear" were the words of his sister repeated to him, Santos Jarquín, when she confessed to the deed. Santos added that like he had seen their mother do so in Neuva Guinea, Nicaragua, where he lived until eight years ago, his sister did the same.

The body was exhumed by the Organismo de Investigación Judicial (OIJ) yesterday morning when they were alerted by neighbours who had heard the story.

Carlos Gómez, chief of the local police said that they got an anonymous 911 call of a woman who had buried a fetus. "We spoke to neighbours and the woman herself took us to the location when the body was buried", sais Gómez.

Authorities say the baby was fully formed and had been buried for about three days.

Cándida Jarquín, one of Rosibel's five sisters, said that he noticed something strange over the weekend, because her sister did not leave the house and did not go to work either. "I went to visit her on Saturday and she told she was not pregnant anymore, what she had been carrying was a sack of blood and that she had passed while on the toilet", Cándida told authorities.

Friends and family described Rosibel as a quiet woman who lived alone and bothered no one.

Santos added to the story that last year his sister Rosibel went through a similar situation, however, in that case the baby was born alive and died on the way to hospital in the hands of Cruz Roja (Red Cross) attendants.

Heidy González, Rosibel's niece, who at 20 is also pregnant and expecting her second child and also aborted, told authorities that last weekend they gave her aunt a baby shower. "She would always get made when we made her the shower, but this time she was happy. They gave her a lot of gifts of clothing and baby things", said Heidy.

Rosibel is being charged by the Fiscalía de Ciudad Quesada (San Carlos), who are still deciding if the young woman should be set free or given preventive measures.