STEARNS COUNTY, Minn. — A Stearns County judge sentenced a St. Cloud woman to more than 21 years in prison after she was found guilty of killing her infant child.
Judge Sarah Hennesy sentenced 29-year-old Fardoussa Abdillahi to 261 months in prison for the 2021 murder of her 3-month-old son, according to the Stearns County Attorney's Office.
Abdillahi was found guilty of second-degree intentional murder and received credit for the 859 days she had already served.
According to the criminal complaint, St. Cloud police responded to reports of a missing baby at an apartment building on the 2000 block of Main Prairie Road around 6:30 a.m. The complaint states an adult man had called 911, saying a baby was missing and that the mother, identified as Abdillahi, said she had killed her baby and threw their body in a dumpster behind the building.
The complaint says the man who reported the incident, and other witnesses familiar with Abdillahi, told officers they went to the apartment building where Abdillahi lived alone with the victim in an attempt to locate the baby. According to the complaint, the witnesses decided to call authorities when they were unable to find the infant.
The complaint states that when officers arrived, they asked Abdillahi where the child was, to which she replied she had placed the child's body in a black plastic garbage bag inside a dumpster after stabbing them. Officers were then able to locate the child, who was already deceased, and placed Abdillahi under arrest.
After Abdillahi was taken into custody, she told investigators that after the child was born, she "experienced headaches and feelings of worry and fear." She also told investigators that she was upset that the child's father denied the child was his and wondered "how she was going to get help."
Prosecutors say that during questioning, Abdillahi admitted to stabbing the child with a kitchen knife before placing their body in the dumpster. The complaint states Abdillahi called her mother, who lives out of state, shortly after the child's death to tell her what she had done.
The Midwest Medical Examiner's Office ruled the child's death a homicide by sharp force injuries.
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