A Nebraska mother pleaded guilty Friday to supplying her teen daughter with pills for an illegal abortion and helping to burn and bury the baby's remains.
In a plea deal, Jessica Burgess, 42, of Norfolk admitted to providing an abortion after 20 weeks of gestation, false reporting and tampering with human skeletal remains. Prosecutors agreed to drop charges of concealing the death of another person and abortion by someone other than a licensed physician.
Burgess is accused of assisting her then-17-year-old daughter Celeste Burgess with obtaining an abortion last year when medical records indicated she was more than 23 weeks pregnant — beyond the period during which the practice is legal. Madison County District Court documents show Burgess ordered abortion pills over the internet.
After the teen aborted the 29-week-old fetus, the two burned the remains and buried them in a field north of Norfolk in northeastern Nebraska. Authorities later found the burned fetus.
NEBRASKA MOTHER, DAUGHTER FACING CHARGES OVER ALLEGEDLY PERFORMING ILLEGAL ABORTION, BURYING FETUS
State law enacted in 2010 makes abortion illegal after 20 weeks of pregnancy. Madison County Attorney Joe Smith said this is the first time he's charged anyone with performing an illegal abortion. In May, Republican Gov. Jim Pillen signed a new 12-week abortion ban.
Jessica Burgess is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 22, court documents show. She faces two felony counts and one misdemeanor.
Her daughter Celeste Burgess, now 18, pleaded guilty in May to removing, concealing or abandoning a dead body. She was charged as an adult and faces up to two years in prison. Her sentencing hearing is on July 20.
Investigators obtained Facebook messages that show the pair discussing how to abort the baby and destroy the evidence. The messages were acquired with a search warrant and detailed in court documents.
Celeste Burgess wrote "about how she can't wait to get the ‘thing’ out of her body," court documents state. She also wrote "I will finally be able to wear jeans." Another message shows Jessica Burgess inform her daughter that she obtained abortion pills and gave instructions on how to take the pills to induce an abortion.
NE WOMAN PLEADS GUILTY TO BURNING, CONCEALING FETUS AFTER TAKING MEDICATIONS TO END PREGNANCY
The investigation of the case began in April 2022, after a Norfolk Police detective received a tip that Celeste had a miscarriage and buried the fetus with her mother, the Lincoln Journal-Star reported. The detective found the medical records indicating how far along the pregnancy had been, and that she had been due on July 3. He spoke to the Burgesses days later, and court records reportedly say they told him Celeste gave birth to a stillborn baby while she was showering.
They reportedly said they then put the body in a bag, placed it in a van, and later buried it a few miles away with a 22-year-old man's help. They even showed the detective where the body was buried — on land owned by the man's parents. The man reportedly said that the women tried to burn the body first, which was consistent with the investigation's findings.
At that point, the women were charged with the offenses of concealing the death and body, and false reporting. Not long after, however, the detective used a search warrant to access the women's Facebook accounts and found messages between the two of them indicating that Jessica Burgess got her daughter abortion pills, as well as directions for what to do with them.
Last summer, the 22-year-old man pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor after he was accused of helping the two women bury the fetus. He was put on probation.
Fox News' Ronn Blitzer and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
