Uploaded March 2010 | Updated September 2026, 11 hours ago
Police say Ashley Cox is a daycare worker and college student studying child care development. She's now charged with murdering her own baby, in a scene witnesses describe as a slaughterhouse.
Ashley Cox cries before hearing a detective detail the accusations against her in an Oldham County courtroom. Police say Cox, the mother of a two-year-old daughter, was visiting her boyfriend at the Roederer
Correctional Complex when she said she wasn't feeling well and went to the bathroom. About an hour later, witnesses describe what they saw inside that room.
"Once the door was opened, guards and witnesses described the bathroom as essentially a slaughterhouse. They indicated there was blood on the walls, toilet, sink there was blood pooling on the floor and that the blood had been smeared in an attempt to clean it up," said Detective Todd Harwood, Kentucky State Police.
Cox was taken to a hospital where doctors determined she had given birth. The body of a 6 pound 5 ounce girl was found in a trash can of the prison bathroom, wrapped in bloody towels. Police say the baby was born alive and healthy, but died of asphyxiation from toilet paper stuffed into its mouth.
"Enough of this material had been stuffed into the infant's mouth, where it actually formed a mold of this infant's mouth," said Det. Harwood.
Detective Harwood testified that Cox denied knowing she was pregnant, but admitted family members and friends had recently questioned her about it.
"Ashley told me she did not know she was pregnant, surprised by the situation. She indicated she sat down on the toilet not feeling well, heard a sound, assumed she had a miscarriage and could not recall anything after that except helping to clean up blood on the floor," said Det. Harwood.
Cox sat crying with her head down through most of the testimony, but broke down afterwards. She is charged with murder and concealing the birth of an infant and has pleaded not guilty. The case now goes to a grand jury.
Bond for Ashley Cox is set at $2.5 million on the murder charge, and $500,000 on the concealing charge.
Police say Ashley Cox is a daycare worker and college student studying child care development. She's now charged with murdering her own baby, in a scene witnesses describe as a slaughterhouse.
Ashley Cox cries before hearing a detective detail the accusations against her in an Oldham County courtroom. Police say Cox, the mother of a two-year-old daughter, was visiting her boyfriend at the Roederer
Correctional Complex when she said she wasn't feeling well and went to the bathroom. About an hour later, witnesses describe what they saw inside that room.
"Once the door was opened, guards and witnesses described the bathroom as essentially a slaughterhouse. They indicated there was blood on the walls, toilet, sink there was blood pooling on the floor and that the blood had been smeared in an attempt to clean it up," said Detective Todd Harwood, Kentucky State Police.
Cox was taken to a hospital where doctors determined she had given birth. The body of a 6 pound 5 ounce girl was found in a trash can of the prison bathroom, wrapped in bloody towels. Police say the baby was born alive and healthy, but died of asphyxiation from toilet paper stuffed into its mouth.
"Enough of this material had been stuffed into the infant's mouth, where it actually formed a mold of this infant's mouth," said Det. Harwood.
Detective Harwood testified that Cox denied knowing she was pregnant, but admitted family members and friends had recently questioned her about it.
"Ashley told me she did not know she was pregnant, surprised by the situation. She indicated she sat down on the toilet not feeling well, heard a sound, assumed she had a miscarriage and could not recall anything after that except helping to clean up blood on the floor," said Det. Harwood.
Cox sat crying with her head down through most of the testimony, but broke down afterwards. She is charged with murder and concealing the birth of an infant and has pleaded not guilty. The case now goes to a grand jury.
Bond for Ashley Cox is set at $2.5 million on the murder charge, and $500,000 on the concealing charge.
