Brandon Thoma Bio – Brandon Thoma Wiki
Brandon Thoma and Taylor Blaha, an Iowa couple, were arrested and charged in connection with drowning their newborn in a bathtub because they were afraid their other child would be removed from their care if police learned that the infant had “methamphetamine in her system,” authorities said in court documents obtained by WHO13.
AGE:
Taylor Blaha is 31 years old.
DETAIL OF INCIDENCE:
Brandon Thoma, and Taylor Blaha, 24, both of Fort Dodge, Iowa, have been charged with first-degree murder in the death of their baby girl, the Fort Dodge Police Department announced in a Dec. 8 news release. Thoma is also accused of abuse of a corpse. The baby’s remains have still not been found.
An investigation began on Nov. 22 when police received a tip from an Iowa Department of Human Services worker who claimed Blaha told her at a hospital that she gave birth to a baby girl at her home and that she had been buried at an unspecified location, according to a criminal complaint.
Blaha learned about her pregnancy in April and confirmed Thoma was the child’s father, court papers show. The pair already have a two-year-old son together.
Since then, Blaha allegedly admitted that she and Thoma tried to cause a miscarriage but were unsuccessful. A review of the couple’s cellphones revealed they made searches on how to force a miscarriage, authorities allege.
Blaha allegedly gave birth on Nov. 16 inside a bathroom of the pair’s apartment. According to the criminal complaint against Blaha, she told police they had no intentions of keeping the baby and planned to allow Blaha’s sister to adopt the child.
She said the baby, who was named Kayleen Lee Blaha, was born “alive, crying, moving its arms and legs, and opening her eyes,” according to the complaint.
Then, Blaha allegedly asked for and was given methamphetamine by Thoma “to help her ease the pains associated with the birth.”
They were concerned that methamphetamine was in the newborn’s system and expected law enforcement to be called if any neighbors heard the baby crying, according to the complaint.
The complaint claims that to stop her wails, Blaha told the detective that they “placed Kayleen in the bathtub, which was about half full of water, and placed both of their hands on the baby’s chest, forcing her underwater, ultimately killing her.”
Thoma placed the infant in a “plastic storage container, wrapping her in multiple layers of trash bags, and then placing her inside a black backpack that he carried out of the apartment,” he allegedly told police. When he returned home on Nov. 17, the backpack was allegedly empty.
Text messages between Blaha and Thoma confirmed that Thoma initially discarded Kayleen’s body in a wooded area near the Kenyon Road Bridge, the affidavit states. However, multiple searches of that location were unsuccessful.
Then, on Dec. 5, Thoma told authorities that he would take them to Kayleen’s remains, according to the criminal complaint against Thoma. He claimed her remains were in a rural area north of the North Central Iowa Regional Landfill. Still, after a full excavation of that area, authorities found no sign of her body.
According to the criminal complaint against Thoma, the couple kept sections of the umbilical cord that they cut themselves with scissors “to remember the baby.”
A Nov. 23 search of their apartment found “an object consistent with an umbilical cord or remains of a human placenta” in the top drawer of a dresser, which Blaha claimed would be, authorities said.
Thoma and Blaha are being held in the Webster County Jail on $1 million cash bonds, WHO13 reports. It’s not immediately clear if the suspects have entered a plea or retained an attorney to comment on their behalf.
Authorities are offering a $1,500 reward for information leading to the discovery of the newborn’s body. Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at (515)-573-1444.