Fort Dodge mother says drugs involved in killing of newborn baby

FORT DODGE — More details have been released on the death of a Fort Dodge newborn as the search for the baby’s body continues.

Twenty-four-year-old Taylor Blaha and 31-year-old Brandon Thoma were arrested and charged with first-degree murder in the death of their newborn daughter. Blaha told detectives that on November 16th she gave birth to her daughter in the bathroom of her apartment, the child was alive and crying.

Blaha told detectives it was the child’s crying that caused her and Thoma to panic in a drug-fueled state, they then took her to a half-filled bathtub, where it is reported that together, they allegedly held her under the water until she died.

Thoma faces an additional charge of Abuse of a Corpse. Both Blaha and Thoma are being held on $1 million cash-only bond. The child’s body has not been found despite a search that has stretched from downtown Fort Dodge to the Des Moines River and in and around the Fort Dodge landfill.

Anyone with information as to the whereabouts of the child’s body is urged to call the Fort Dodge Police Department or Webster County Crime Stoppers.