Dead woman believed to be infant's mother

PITTSBURGH - A woman whose body was found with her abdomen cut open in suburban Pittsburgh is presumed to be the mother of the baby another woman took to a hospital and claimed as her own, authorities said yesterday.

Investigators were seeking dental records to identify the body found Friday in the Wilkinsburg apartment of Andrea Curry-Demus, the woman who went to the hospital, Allegheny County Medical Examiner Karl Williams said.

The body showed "evidence that there had been a partial evisceration - meaning her abdomen had been opened with a sharp weapon. The uterus had been opened," he said. She had been pregnant, and a placenta was found in the apartment.

The body "was in a state of moderate decomposition," and appeared to have been dead for about two days, Williams said. Duct tape bound the hands and feet, and the face was covered with a plastic material that had also been secured with duct tape.

"We found a lot of evidence of a struggle having occurred," Williams said. He said that there was evidence of drugs at the scene, and that investigators would look for their presence in the victim.

The cause of death had not been determined, Williams said. Tests were being done to verify that the baby the woman had been carrying was the newborn whom Curry-Demus, 38, took to a Pittsburgh hospital Thursday night.

"Circumstances would dictate that it has to be. There can't be too many cases similar to this at the same time," Williams said.

The baby was "apparently doing well," although there had been problems initially with a low heart rate and low temperature associated with blood loss, Williams said. The hospital would not release any information about the child.

Williams and Allegheny County Police Assistant Superintendent James Morton said their priority was to identify the woman. Her fingerprints didn't match any in a police database, and she had no identifying scars or tattoos, Morton said.

The body was found after reporters called authorities about a foul odor coming from Curry-Demus' apartment. Police had been at the building Thursday night but did not go into that apartment, Wilkinsburg Police Chief Ophelia Coleman said. Instead, a relative of Curry-Demus' led them to another apartment, she said.

The mystery began when Curry-Demus showed up at West Penn Hospital with a newborn who still had the umbilical cord attached, police said. Tests proved that Curry-Demus was not the mother despite her claims, police said.

Police said she later told them that she had miscarried in June and hadn't wanted to upset her mother by telling her she lost the baby. According to the criminal complaint, she said she had befriended a pregnant woman and discussed buying her child when it was born.

Police said Curry-Demus had told them that she paid a woman named Tina $1,000 for the baby.

Curry-Demus was charged with child endangerment and dealing in infant children. She has been jailed in lieu of $10,000 bond and a psychiatric examination.

Morton said further charges would be filed after the body was identified.

It wasn't clear if Curry-Demus had an attorney. Morton said he did not know, jail officials could not say, and a message left yesterday with a lawyer who once represented her was not returned.

In 1990, Curry-Demus, then known as Andrea Curry, was accused of stabbing a Wilkinsburg woman in an alleged plot to steal the woman's infant. A day after the stabbing, Curry-Demus snatched a 3-week-old girl from Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh. The baby was found unharmed with Curry-Demus at her home the next day.

Curry-Demus pleaded guilty in 1991 to charges from both incidents and was sentenced to three to 10 years in prison, according to court records. She was paroled in August 1998 and began serving a 10-year probation.