Mom Shows No Emotion, Police Say

A woman arrested after the body of her newborn son was discovered in her car trunk has shown no sign of emotion or sorrow during questioning by police, who want murder charges filed against her, authorities said Sunday.

Jackie Lynn Anderson, 37, of Fullerton, was arrested on suspicion of murder Saturday after her mother, Peggy Anderson, found the tiny body in a cardboard box in the trunk. Three years ago, Jackie Anderson was arrested for abandoning her infant daughter, who lived.

Fullerton police have tried to get information from Anderson, who has not identified the boy’s father or discussed a motive for her alleged action, said Detective Kevin Hamilton, who is heading the investigation into the child’s death.

“As far as remorse, it’s strange,” Hamilton said. “She has remained unemotional . . . like there’s no remorse.”

Police want to file murder charges against Jackie Anderson on Tuesday, when her arraignment is expected, according to Hamilton. But police have not yet discussed the case in detail with the Orange County district attorney’s office, he added.

“What charge we’re going to file is the key issue,” Hamilton said. “We want to file a murder charge, but we need to know more about this previous case.”

In 1992, Jackie Anderson was arrested for abandoning her infant daughter shortly after giving birth.

She was booked on one count of felony child endangerment. At that time, Anderson’s roommate heard a baby crying after Anderson left for work and discovered bloody sheets in the woman’s bedroom.

A Fullerton police officer who pulled back the bedclothes found a 1 1/2-day-old baby girl still uncleaned after being born, police said. Paramedics cleared the baby’s lungs and gave her oxygen.

Jackie Anderson told police she was upset after giving birth and had not decided yet what to do with the baby.

The daughter later was put in a foster home, but police have been unable to locate the girl’s foster family because children’s social services were closed over the weekend, Hamilton said.

Police also could not immediately determine whether Anderson was convicted and what punishment, if any, she received in the abandonment case, Hamilton said.

Jackie Anderson lived with her mother, Peggy Anderson, who discovered the baby boy in the trunk of her daughter’s car Friday night.

The suspect, whose relationship with her mother was strained, had been battling a drinking problem, Hamilton said.

“The mother-daughter relationship was going through some problems. . . . Her family knew of her pregnancy,” Hamilton said. “But since July, the mother and daughter had not spoken to each other much.”

Peggy Anderson was searching her daughter’s car for liquor and instead found the boy’s body, according to the detective.

Peggy Anderson’s husband called paramedics, but the baby was dead when they arrived, police said.

A preliminary autopsy of the newborn found that he was alive at birth, but the cause of death was unknown pending the completion of a toxicology report, an Orange County coroner’s spokesman said.

Jackie Anderson is being held at Orange County Jail in Santa Ana. Bail has been set at $250,000.