<img src=" http://www.joplinglobeonline.com/images/zope/new.gif" border=0>Woman charged with murder in infant’s death

April 10, 2009 05:43 pm

— A Fairview, Mo., woman has been charged with first-degree murder in connection with the death of her infant son last month.
Amy A. Tunnell, 21, was taken into custody this afternoon by the Newton County Sheriff’s Department and is currently at the jail in lieu of a $250,000 bond, Sheriff Ken Copeland said. She is accused of suffocating her three-month-old son.
Sheriff’s deputies were first dispatched to Tunnell’s home at about 11:42 a.m. March 1 after receiving reports that Tunnell had awakened to find her infant was not breathing. The cause of death was later determined to be asphyxiation, according to the sheriff’s department.
Tunnell’s in-laws, though, later told authorities that Tunnell had confessed to either hurting or killing the infant.