For Hub City Times

WISCONSIN RAPIDS – A judge is delaying a hearing for a Wood County couple suspected of foul play in the death of their newborn child until an autopsy is completed.

Marylinn Feher, 22, and Allen Rice, 19, of Milladore, were scheduled in court April 22 in Wisconsin Rapids for their first appearance when the judge made the ruling.

Wood County Sheriff Shawn Becker suspects Feher had been concealing her pregnancy and wants prosecutors to charge her with homicide.

Becker says Feher went to the Marshfield Medical Center after the April 5 birth of the child. Police received a report of a mother who could not tell hospital officials where her newborn baby was. Officers found the child with Rice in the couple’s car in the hospital parking lot. The infant boy had been wrapped in a towel and placed inside a plastic garbage bag.

Initial autopsy results indicated the child had been strangled, consistent with what Feher told investigators. A new initial court appearance has been scheduled for May 6.