'I felt my intestines fall out of my body': Woman whose unborn baby was 'carved' out by stranger
WARNING, GRAPHIC CONTENT: A woman whose unborn baby was 'carved' from her womb by a stranger, has shared the chilling details of the horrific ordeal in her first interview since the attack.
Michelle Wilkins, 27, from Boulder in Colorado, US, was eight-months pregnant with her first child when she was lured to the home of Dynel Catrece Lane, 36, in March last year, with a baby cot advertised for sale online.
Lane, 36, had faked her own pregnancy for months, deceiving her husband David Ridley, who she reportely told would be the baby's father.
Prosecutors said when Wilkins went into the basement to look at the crib, Lane allegedly hit her, tried to choke and smother her before cutting the baby from her womb.
She left Wilkins on the floor unconscious, while she allegedly took the baby to a hospital with her husband, claiming she had suffered a miscarriage.
“When I came round, my whole abdomen was searing with pain," Ms Wilkins told The Mirror.
"I looked down and saw the cut across my stomach, I felt my intestines fall out of my body as I tried to get up.”
Once she regained consciousness, she managed to call the police, despite having lost 50 per cent of blood.
Ms Wilkins reportedly was barely alive when she arrived at the hospital, but she miraculously survived after an operation.
She said her grief has been excruciating since the attack.
"We had a nursery set up, had a baby shower. I had all the clothes she needed for a year. The only thing still to get was a crib," she said.
It was while searching for one online that she spotted Lane’s advert.
“I texted her and got one back the next day and arranged to go round.”
“She seemed so normal. We went upstairs to the bedroom and she pulled out all the clothes."
She said the two women chatted in the living room for about an hour before Michelle tried to leave.
That's when Lane offered to show her some baby clothes in the basement.
Lane reportedly came at Ms Wilkin from behind and attacked her.
“She grabbed me by the sweater. I was yelling ‘what are you doing?’
"She pushed me into one of the nearby bedrooms. She wrestled me on to the bed, got on top of me and tried to start smothering me with a pillow.”
The victim said her attacker allegedly smashed a lava lamp over her head, before stabbing it into her neck and tried to choke her.
“I remember thinking 'I have to survive for Aurora’," she told the Mirror.
"But then everything went black and the next I knew, I woke up on the floor.
“I tried to stand but I couldn’t feel my legs, so I fell forwards. Then I became aware I could feel my insides through my pants, I could feel the blood seeping out.
"When I felt my intestines through my stomach, I hoped that was Aurora, that it wasn’t my gut.”
She almost didn't make it. Her heart stopped and she needed resuscitation.
Ms Wilkins recalled holding her daughter’s tiny dead body in hospital, as she dressed her and sang to her.
"It shouldn’t be anyone’s first moments with their daughter, holding, dressing and singing to a cold body," she said,
A Colorado jury in February found Lane guilty on all six counts related to the case, including attempted first-degree murder, assault and unlawful termination of a pregnancy.
The judge sentenced her to 100 years behind bars.
