Mom gets 40 years in deaths of 2 babies thrown away in trash bags

by: Nexstar Media Wire and The Associated Press

Posted: Nov 5, 2020 / 02:34 PM CST / Updated: Nov 5, 2020 / 02:34 PM CST

This Dec. 2018 photo provided by Horry County jail in South Carolina shows Alyssa Dayvault. The South Carolina mother on trial for placing two of her newborns in trash bags and throwing them away about a year apart told investigators she blacked out from the pain of delivering the second child alone, waking up 15 minutes later and finding the boy’s face blue. Prosecutors on Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2020, played a recording of Dayvault’s interview with police who were called after Dayvault showed up at the hospital with an infection caused when she did not deliver the placenta along with the baby boy in December 2018. (Horry County jail via AP)

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A South Carolina mother who skipped the trial where she was convicted of homicide by child abuse for throwing two of her newborns in trash bags will spend 40 years in prison.

Alyssa Dayvault’s sentence was handed down Thursday. She turned herself in the day after her trial ended.

The 32-year-old mother hid her pregnancies in 2017 and 2018 from everyone, including her boyfriend and her mother.

She gave birth at her North Myrtle Beach home alone then moments later, put the newborns into trash bags and threw them away.

Dayvault cried and apologized to her family, saying she never meant to harm anyone and that she made a horrible mistake.