Update On Arrest of Boca Isles South Woman Charged With Homicide In Death Of Baby.
BY: ANDREW COLTON | Editor and Publisher
BOCA RATON, FL (BocaNewsNow.com) (Copyright © 2023 MetroDesk Media, LLC) [EXCLUSIVE AT 11:55 a.m.] — The Boca Raton woman charged earlier this month with the death of a child allegedly allowed her baby to be suffocated as it was born — then went on Instagram like nothing ever happened.
The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office, in a report obtained by BocaNewsNow.com, says that Bianca Souza was 19-years-old at the time of her baby’s birth on May 2nd, 2022. Souza, according to investigators, gave birth at her home in Boca Isles South. As the newborn exited her body, it became trapped in her underwear and eventually suffocated. With the dead baby on her bed, Bianca Souza then spent the next ten minutes using her phone and searching Instagram. She never called police or rescuers. Her mother later found the dead infant, asked Bianca what it was, and recalls Bianca responding with, “it’s a baby.”
This is how the medical examiner explained the infant’s birth, after a nearly 18-month investigation: “Per sworn statements, the child was born alive and was crying for some time after birth. The child was born while (Bianca) was wearing boxer shorts. Bianca stated that the child came out through the right pants leg, and the baby was on his left side. This statement is consistent with the autopsy findings of a well-demarcated line across the neonate’s back, likely from chest compression by clothing, with abundant petechiae of the skin and soft tissues superior to this level. The reported birth and probable entrapment position also places the neonate’s face against thigh. Bianca did not attempt to move herself, remove clothing, reposition the baby, pick up, comfort, seek medical attention, or otherwise care for the child. She reported the baby stopped crying. A neonate is fully dependent for care and survival, and per her statements did not attempt to create an environment where the neonate could breathe without restriction. The autopsy revealed a term infant with no evidence of natural disease to otherwise explain his demise. As such, the most probable cause of death is asphyxia and the manner of death is homicide.”
Bianca, according to police, was interviewed multiple times. In an interview shortly before charges were filed in December, a Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office investigator noted this from a conversation with Bianca about what happened the day of the birth:
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“Post-Miranda, Bianca said, “…you’re saying he died from, you know, obviously something, him suffocating. And you want me to give you the answer?” I explained I want to know what she thinks it is. She started to talk of the blanket and boxers. After asking a few questions, Bianca put her hands over her face and sobbed. She recalled having the blanket over herself when she was giving birth. The red fuzzy blanket. She said he stopped crying between her legs, under the blanket. He did not cry next to her. She was taken back to remember by our continued conversation. She kept the blanket over him after the birth. He was crying and stopped before she picked him up. After he was born, she was confused and did not comprehend she just gave birth. He laid in her boxers for about ten minutes under the blanket. When she moved the blanket, he was in a ball in her shorts on her right leg. She demonstrated with the doll. She showed how his head was poking out of the shorts and the rest of his head was in the boxers. She motioned the direction the shorts went across his head. By the time she checked on him and found him in that position, she already passed the sac. When she felt it gushing, she lifted the blanket and pulled it out, the placenta. It felt slimey and looked like a ball.”
The investigator also documented this statement:
“She put the blanket down and acted as if nothing happened. Bianca had not seen (the baby) yet. Bianca did not check on the baby until after he stopped crying. She waited about an hour. There was no pain after the birth, just her vagina. She just laid back and got on her phone, Instagram. He cried for about ten minutes after his birth. When she did sit up, pulled back the blanket, that was when she found him inside her shorts with his head partially covered. She recalled his chubby arms, but did not see his face and he was not moving. She took her shorts off of her legs, pulling him down with the shorts to the end of the bed. She thinks he was still in the shorts and she pulled him up next to her. He was not moving or making noise. She laid next to him for a while before getting up to take a shower. She was cold from all the fluid. She placed the baby next to her, and pulled the blanket over his body to his chin. While in the shower, her mom called. I later asked, why she told me she moved the baby up to her side and he was still crying. She said she remembered it that way until we discussed the ‘suffocation.’ After we talked about that, she remembered she did not move him for a while. I asked why she did not call and she said she did not know, “I just sat there.”
Bianca Souza is charged with Aggravated Manslaughter of a Child, and Neglect of a Child Causing Great Bodily Harm. She was arrested on December 8th, 2023, and later released on $25,000 bond.
