US mother who dropped baby from Paris window placed in care

This photograph shows a view of the Ibis styles hotel, where a 18-year-old American mother threw a newborn baby from the second-floor window, umbilical cord still attached, in the 20th arrondissement in eastern Paris on February 24, 2025. Agence France-Presse

PARIS — An 18-year-old student from the United States who dropped her newborn baby to its death from a Paris hotel window has been placed in psychiatric care, French prosecutors said Wednesday.

The newborn was “thrown from the second-floor window of a hotel in the 20th arrondissement” in eastern Paris on Monday, a prosecution source said.

The baby was given emergency treatment but did not survive.

READ: US mother drops newborn to death from Paris hotel window

Police were alerted after an infant wrapped in a cloth, with its umbilical cord still attached, was discovered in front of the hotel, a police source said.

The mother had given birth in a room at the hotel and then thrown her child out the window, according to the source.

French officials said they had launched a murder investigation. But the woman could be declared unfit to stand trial now that she has been placed in psychiatric care.

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Officials said the woman was “part of a group of young adults traveling in Europe”.