Faith Ann St. Yves

 

 

 

 

 

 

Denise St. Yves, gave birth to Faith on January 9, 1998. At the hospital, Denise identified herself as Ann Morin. Denise was accompanied at the hospital by Thomas St. Yves and another daughter Katrina. The hospital staff contacted the Department of Human Services. The Department referred the matter to Public Health Nursing, who sent a nurse to attempt to contact the St. Yves family. The address that the St. Yveses had given the hospital turned out to be false, but by January 30, the nurse finally located the St. Yveses’ trailer.

 

On five separate visits, no one answered the door. The Department received another referral regarding the safety of the St. Yves children from a food stamp worker on February 17, 1998. Upon this second referral, the Department assigned a child protective services caseworker who attempted to contact the St. Yveses at their home on February 19. No one answered the door, but the caseworker could hear a child inside. The caseworker and police made four additional unsuccessful attempts to check on the children over the next few days.

 

Police discovered that Ann Morin was in fact Denise St.Yves, and that there was an outstanding warrant for her arrest on theft charges in New Hampshire. A search warrant was obtained to allow the police to enter the trailer to search for and arrest Denise. The police arrived, along with a caseworker, and after first requesting admission, began prying open the door. Thomas St. Yves opened the door and physically handled the officer at the door. Officers place Thomas in handcuffs and led him outside during the search for Denise. Thomas claimed that Faith was with “Ann” and the two were in New Hampshire. The police eventually located Denise “Ann” in the trailer and placed her under arrest.

 

 Denise told police that Faith was not with her, but rather was with her grandparents in New Hampshire. Officers noticed the St. Yveses’ trailer was quite cold, and was filled with trash and dog urine and feces. Katrina was taken into emergency custody by the caseworker. The police took Denise to the station, leaving an officer behind with Thomas to find out where Faith was. After a short time, Thomas admitted that Faith was in the trailer, and told them where to find her. Thomas went into that room, and returned with a closed box. In the box was Faith’s body. It had been wrapped in a garbage bag, wrapped in wet blankets and had been placed in a box. Faith had obviously been dead for days. An autopsy was performed on Faith’s body the next day. The medical examiner determined Faith had died from anoxic brain injury which means an injury to the brain caused by lack of oxygen. According to the medical examiner, this was consistent with suffocation caused by holding an infant’s mouth closed or by suffocating her with blankets.

 

Thomas initially denied hurting Faith, but eventually told police that Faith’s crying had led him to “retaliate.” He told the police that he had tried to close Faith’s mouth to stop her crying, and that on several occasions he had placed Faith face down on a couch, covered her with blankets, and pressed down until she stopped crying. He admitted that, after she died, he wrapped her body in plastic, but he said that Denise had placed her in the box. He then turned down the heat in the room where the body lay in order to prevent decomposition.

 

Denise plead guilty to abuse of a corpse and hindering apprehension and was sentenced to 11 months in jail. Thomas St. Yves was sentencing to 40 years for manslaughter and one year for abuse of a corpse.