Woman accused of double murder says she tried to save baby’s life

Scott Sonner

Wednesday, Nov. 29, 2000 | 9:22 a.m.

FERNLEY, Nev. - A woman accused of killing her niece and niece's unborn baby in an alleged adoption deal gone bad told investigators she tried to save the baby's life and never meant to harm anyone.

But detectives also testified at a preliminary hearing on the double murder charges Tuesday that Erin Kuhn, 31, Sacramento, Calif., changed her story at least three times and admitted she was upset her niece backed out of an agreement for Kuhn to adopt the baby.

"I got different versions - markedly different," said Don Parvin, a homicide detective for Sacramento police.

Kuhn, an emergency room technician and divorced mother of one, is accused of killing Kathaleena Draper, 17, and surgically removing the 36-week-old fetus in a Fernley motel room in June.

Her explanation of the bizarre event emerged for the first time in the testimony Tuesday of criminal investigators and other experts before senior Judge John W. Ray in Fernley Justice Court.

Kuhn was in court Tuesday but didn't testify. Her lawyers, Tod Young of Minden, Nev., and Michael Roeser of Zephyr Cove, Nev., refused comment outside the courtroom.

Parvin said Kuhn ultimately explained that Draper was hurt during a physical altercation between the two, was knocked out and temporarily stopped breathing.

She told Parvin she panicked and had to decide quickly whether to save Draper or the baby.

She said she cut Draper open with a knife and removed the baby. She said the baby's heart was beating but it was not breathing. She said she performed CPR for an hour before the heart beat slowed and she gave up, according to Parvin.

Kuhn was arrested days later in Sacramento after Draper's body was found June 17 along a road there wrapped in a blue, plastic shower curtain.

She later agreed to lead California authorities back to the location of the body of the baby - named Jeffrey Draper in the autopsy report - in the high desert along U.S. Highway 95 near Silver Springs, Nev.

Other new information detectives disclosed at the hearing Tuesday included:

Kuhn initially told investigators she and Draper argued at a motel north of Las Vegas, but that Draper disappeared, leaving behind a note that said she was returning to California with a male friend.

She told police that blood in the back seat of her 1992 Ford Taurus came from an injured dog she picked up along the highway, Parvin said.

But later when told the blood would be tested, she said it may have come from Draper as a result of her pregnancy or a nose bleed, Parvin said.

Still later, Kuhn told authorities that she had returned to the Lazy N motel to find Draper "dead, covered with a blue plastic sheet and the baby had been removed from the body," Parvin said.

After her arrest, Kuhn changed her story again, Parvin said.

"She told me they had a fight and during the course of the fight, (Kathaleena) stopped breathing. She had an asthma condition.

"She decided to remove the baby because Kathaleena was suffering," he said.

"She made a horizontal cut in the abdomen. She told me she went layer by layer to try to avoid going deep enough to hurt the baby.

"After removing the baby, she made the choice of working on the baby or working on Kathaleena," he said.

Kuhn told Parvin that Draper was engaged in "agonal breathing" - a kind of breathing that occurs about every 30 seconds in the minutes before death.

The next move, involving the latex glove, wasn't fully explained in testimony Tuesday but was expected to come up again Wednesday as the hearing continues.

"She took the latex glove and put it in her mouth and used her fingers to push it down her throat," Parvin testified.

"She told me the mother stopped breathing right away. She told me 'I did not want Kathaleena to wake up because I had just taken the baby out," he said.

"She indicated she was afraid that because of the fight she could be accused of being responsible for the whole incident," he said.

"She asked me how many years she could get for something like this."