During her initial appearance in juvenile court, an 18-year-old Warren High School student in Washington County admitted yesterday to discarding her infant in the trash after giving birth Oct. 26, 1998.

The teen-ager, who was 17 years old at the time of the crime, admitted to delinquency charges alleging that she committed acts which would constitute involuntary manslaughter if the acts had been committed by an adult.

"The disposition hearing is set for June 7," said Washington County Prosecutor Mike Spahr. "She was released to her parents until then."

In the disposition hearing, she will be sentenced with anything from the maximum punishment of juvenile detention until she is 21 to the minimum punishment of probation, Spahr said.

The investigation began early February when a Warren High School student told a teacher about the possibility of another teen-ager's pregnancy. Investigators then were called in to question the teen-age mother who denied ever being pregnant.

Investigators began searching the backyard of the home in which the baby was born after hearing rumors she might have buried the baby there. After deeming the search fruitless, investigators began to search the Athens Hocking Reclamation Center where the baby's body could have been transported to by sanitation trucks that collected trash from the girl's home.

After further investigation, the teen-age girl admitted to giving birth to a baby, taping its mouth shut and double bagging it in trash bags before disposing of the body in the trash.

Washington County Sheriff Office investigators searched the landfill for weeks for the body of the baby until the search was called off last month.

- Michelle Everhart