The New Jersey teen couple who threw away their baby

It was on November 12, 1996 that New Jersey teenager Amy Grossberg gave birth in a Delaware motel. Her boyfriend at the time, Brian Peterson, threw the baby in a dumpster behind the hotel.

Grossberg, from an upscale neighborhood in Wyckoff, had hidden the pregnancy from everyone as she “wore baggy clothes and avoided her parents for the course of the nine months,” according to Murderpedia.org. Grossberg, 18 at the time, was a student at the University of Delaware by the time she gave birth. Peterson, also from Wyckoff, drove three hours to Delaware after Grossberg’s water broke.

Prosecutors say that after the baby was born, the couple wrapped the newborn in a garbage bag and threw it the dumpster. Murderpedia.org goes on to say a maid found bloody sheets and notified the authorities. The couple claimed the baby was stillborn, but an autopsy determined that the boy had been born alive and then killed by blunt force trauma to the head and shaking.

The couple turned on each other blaming the other one for the death. Peterson agreed to testify against Grossberg in exchange for a reduced charge; Grossberg then accepted a plea deal in which she pleaded guilty to manslaughter. She was sentenced to 30 months in prison and she served two years. Peterson was sentenced to two years and served 20 months.

The New York Post reported  Peterson then moved to Florida while Grossberg returned to Wyckoff.