By Jeff Lehr

jlehr@joplinglobe.com

CASSVILLE, Mo. — The legal fate of a 16-year-old girl, suspected of giving birth a week ago to a baby who was found dead in a shopping bag in her bedroom closet, remained up in the air on Wednesday.

The Associated Press reported that the Barry County sheriff asked juvenile authorities to charge the girl with “second-degree homicide.”

But Sheriff Mick Epperly declined to confirm making such a request in a telephone conversation with the Globe. Epperly would only confirm that he had sent his investigators’ reports to the Barry County juvenile office.

“It’s up to the juvenile authorities to make a decision,” Epperly told the Globe.

The sheriff declined to discuss whether the investigation had determined the cause of the infant’s death or any other content of investigative reports. Keith Paris, chief juvenile officer, did not return the Globe’s calls Wednesday afternoon.

Authorities have yet to identify the girl because she is a juvenile. She was taken into juvenile custody Tuesday morning on a 72-hour hold.

The sheriff said earlier in the week that the teen was believed to have been alone last Thursday afternoon in her family’s home on the edge of Seligman when the suspected live birth took place. Her 18-year-old sister reportedly came home about 4 p.m., and found blood in a hallway and the bathroom. The sister is reported to have helped the younger girl clean up the blood.

The girl’s mother took her to the hospital in Cassville when she got home from work about 6:30 p.m. From there, she was taken by ambulance to a hospital in Bentonville, Ark., for excessive bleeding from a reported miscarriage.

But a doctor at the Arkansas hospital contacted police and told them there were indications that the girl may have given live birth. The Barry County Sheriff’s Department found a dead baby girl in a plastic shopping bag in the girl’s bedroom closet Friday morning during a search.

An autopsy on Saturday found air in the lungs of the infant, suggesting she had not been stillborn.