A man and a woman have been charged after an infant was found wrapped in plastic and buried in a beer box on a property in northeast Illinois, authorities said.
Nicole Pokrzywa, 36, and William Cosmen, 38, were booked into the Will County Sheriff’s Office on Saturday afternoon on charges of abuse of a corpse, according to online jail records. Pokrzywa is the baby girl’s mother, police said, though Cosmen’s relationship to the infant was not immediately released.
An investigation into the incident began on Thursday when deputies received information about a possible buried infant on a property on Roberts Road in Wilmington, about 60 miles southwest of Chicago.
Investigators soon learned that Pokrzywa had prematurely given birth the baby girl and that the body of the infant was buried and “marked with a makeshift headstone,” the Will County Sheriff’s Office said in a press release.
On Friday, after securing the area, police and Crime Scene Investigators located the spot where the remains were buried. After digging roughly three feet into the ground, CSI found “what appeared to be an Old Style beer box,” the sheriff’s office said. “The remains of an infant were found inside the box, wrapped in a plastic bag and cloth.”
The baby girl is believed to have been born in October 2024 when Pokrzywa was six to eight months pregnant.
Pokrzywa and Cosmen were detained and questioned by authorities on Friday, during which time they “both made incriminating statements pertaining to the concealment of the death of the infant,” police said.
Both suspects allegedly told detectives that Pokrzywa has given birth at a separate residence in Manhattan, Ill., and indicated “the infant was born in a toilet,” cops said Saturday. Cosmen then attempted to dispose of the girl’s body “down the toilet drain with a plunger.”
When they realized the remains would not fit down the drain, the duo “left the deceased infant inside of the toilet overnight,” then later wrapped her in a plastic bag and transported her to the property in Wilmington where she was buried, according to police.
Pokrzywa and Cosmen were charged on Saturday with one count each of desecration of a corpse, though authorities said additional charges could be forthcoming pending the completion of autopsy and toxicology reports.
They were in custody at the Will County Adult Detention Facility but released later in the day on a notice to appear in court.
