KENNEWICK, Wash-- A dead woman's body is found in Columbia Park with her baby cut out of her womb on Friday and another woman is accused of murdering her.
The suspect appeared in Benton County Superior Court today and is being held on an investigative hold for first degree murder.
This all started Friday night when the Kennewick Fire Department received a call from a woman claiming she had just given birth near the J.C. Penney parking lot and thought the baby had died.
When firefighters arrived at the scene they found a car with a baby in the back seat and the woman in the drivers seat with no pants on holding an umbilical cord in her hand. The woman repeatedly said 'is my baby okay.'
Kennewick resident, twenty-three year-old, Phiengchai Sisouvanh, was the woman in the car.
She is of Laotian decent and is the only suspect being investigated for the stabbing and cutting of Pasco resident, Araceli Camacho Gomez and her baby who was due to be born in a couple of weeks. The infant is on life support at a hospital in Spokane.
"A fire captain pulled the baby from the drivers side of the rear door," said Chief Ken Hohenberg, Kennewick Police Department.
Firefighters took Sisouvanh and the baby to Kennewick General Hospital where medical tests showed she had not recently given birth.
At about 1 a.m. Kennewick Police found the body of Gomez halfway through Columbia Park Trail. Police determined that was the same location Sisouvanh had orginally called 9-1-1 from, not the J.C. Penny parking lot.
"Gomez was deceased and had suffered massive trauma to her stomach area," said Hohenberg.
Police found Gomez's hands and feet bound by yarn. An autopsy on her body showed she had been stabbed several times and stab wounds to the chest were the cause of her death. Cuts were also found near her uterus consistent of removing an unborn baby.
"What caused the loss of blood was primarily four stab wounds to the chest," said Rick Corson, Benton County Coroner.
Police searched Sisouvanh's purse finding blue mechanic's gloves soaked in blood, bloody paper towel's, latex gloves, a boxcutter, yarn, and a baby bottle and baby socks. Bail will be set for Sisouvanh Wednesday morning at 8 a.m.
A friend of Sisouvanh told KNDU she received a call from Sisouvanh two weeks ago where she claimed she was going to be having a baby soon. Prosecuting Attorney, Andy Miller said they are continuing to investigate the motive that caused Sisouvanh to commit such a heinous crime.
