The American tourist accused of killing her newborn baby by tossing it out of a Paris hotel window can be revealed as a fresh-faced teenager from Oregon.
Gap-year student Mia McQuillin, 18, was part of ‘a group of young people traveling in Europe’, according to French authorities.
Investigators believe she was suffering from ‘pregnancy denial’ when she wrapped the infant in a sheet and allegedly tossed it from the second floor of an Ibis Styles hotel moments after giving birth.
The child was rushed to hospital following the horrifying incident on Monday morning but didn’t survive the 30ft plunge.
Mia grew up in Bend, Central Oregon, a picturesque city on the banks of the Deschutes River.
She looks like a typical, bubbly teenager, baking cakes and having fun with her siblings, in family snaps posted to social media.
‘I have nothing to comment because I don’t know anything,’ Mia’s shaken grandfather Ralph McQuillin, 78, told DailyMail.com.
‘And that’s pretty much where the family is. That’s all I can say.’
Gap-year student Mia McQuillin, 18, was part of ‘a group of young people travelling in Europe’, according to French authorities
Emergency services took the baby to the Robert Debre hospital after witnesses reported the incident at around 6am on Monday
The American student accused of throwing her newborn baby out of a hotel window to their death in Paris was on a trip around Europe
Mia’s family members declined to comment further.
The teenage mother allegedly threw her baby from the second floor of an Ibis Styles hotel ‘with the umbilical cord‘, authorities said.
Investigators in Paris believe the young woman was suffering from ‘pregnancy denial’ when she gave birth ‘unexpectedly’ at the budget hotel in the French capital.
The baby had been wrapped up in a sheet when it was discovered in the street of the city’s 20th arrondissement [district], not far from the historic Place de la Nation.
The newborn was rushed to hospital but was pronounced dead on arrival due to the seriousness of the injuries.
The young mother was taken to the same hospital for treatment following childbirth.
Detectives arrested her at the clinic and charged her with ‘child homicide’, according to French authorities.
Emergency services took the baby to the Robert Debre hospital after witnesses reported the incident at around 6am on Monday.
An investigation has been opened for ‘homicide of a minor under 15’ after the incident at the Ibis Styles hotel off Rue de la Croix Saint-Simon
The Ibis Styles hotel, in the 20th arrondissement, where rooms go for around £80
Mia grew up in Bend, Central Oregon, a picturesque city on the banks of the Deschutes River
The street was closed for more than five hours after the incident, sources told DailyMail.com.
The Paris prosecutor’s office told Le Parisien that the child did not survive the fall.
An investigation has been opened for ‘homicide of a minor under 15’, the city’s public prosecutor told the outlet.
The office said that the mother was ‘part of a group of young adults travelling in Europe’.
They said she had also been taken to hospital for an operation. She was taken into custody on site, the office said.
Witnesses were reportedly ‘alerted by screams’ before calling the emergency services, according to Paris Match.
The baby was said to have been taken ‘in absolute emergency and with a life-threatening prognosis’ to the hospital before being declared dead.
‘The investigation is underway and the precise circumstances of this tragedy remain to be established,’ a person close to the case told the outlet.
There was no police presence outside the hotel this afternoon, MailOnline saw
The woman reportedly threw her baby from the 2nd floor of the hotel in Paris, Le Parisien reported
The Ibis Styles is a three-star budget hotel. Rooms go for around $100 on average.
Paris local Tassos Xenakis told MailOnline there was no police presence or cordon at the hotel by early this afternoon.
Last year a woman from Germany was found guilty of manslaughter after dropping her newborn baby nearly 12ft from her apartment window allegedly because ‘she was worried a baby would ruin her career’.
Katarina Jovanovic was found guilty at the Heilbronn District Court on July 3.
Jovanovic admitted to the crime at the beginning of the trial but could not explain the moment to the court, ASB Zeitung reported.
She also claimed she had not realized she was pregnant. But the prosecution accused her of homicide and of deliberately concealing her pregnancy from colleagues and neighbors.
Prosecutors told the court that Jovanovic thought being a mother would spoil her career as an executive in Porsche’s legal department.
Public prosecutor Mareike Hafendoerfer said: ‘The accused was not prepared to put her life plans, especially her professional advancement, on hold for a child.
‘That was her decision when the baby was born, and as a result, the criteria for a homicide conviction are fulfilled.’
File photo. The American was said to have thrown the baby from a hotel window in Paris
Defense attorney Malte Hoech said: ‘It is a drama that affects me personally. My client did not even know that she was pregnant.
‘When she suddenly held the bloody baby in her hands, she was in an exceptional psychological situation.
‘It was an accident, she dropped the baby. How the child ended up over the windowsill remains to be determined.’
The court accepted the lesser charge of manslaughter but jailed her for seven and a half years, which was more than the three years the defense had demanded.
