By BRIGITTE RUTHMAN
REPUBLICAN-AMERICAN
TORRINGTON — The body of an infant found in a Harwinton reservoir in March by Bristol Water Co. workers was tossed there by a Torrington man who told police he helped a young mother dispose of her stillborn son, according to an arrest warrant made public Friday in Torrington Superior Court.
Benjamin Edgerly, 21, was held on $100,000 bond after arraignment Friday. He is charged with conspiracy to commit concealment of delivery and disposal of bodies.
The water company workers found the body March 21 while checking the reservoir. The Western District Major Crime Squad, called in to lead the investigation, later found the baby was born March 13 to a 19-year-old woman in Portland.
The mother told police she was alone at her grandparents home when she gave birth to a boy, she named Connor, but the umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck and his lips were blue when he was born.
Panicked, she wrapped Connor in a towel and stowed him in a box in the basement until she reached out to a friend, Edgerly, for help, the warrant states.
The mother and Edgerly went to police March 22 after the body was discovered and told their story. The mother has not been charged.
The medical examiner determined Connor was stillborn. He died in the uterus as the result of the inflammation of the fetal membrane due to a bacterial infection, the warrant states.
Edgerly dropped the bag over a fence off Route 72 into Bristol Reservoir No. 4 reservoir March 20.