Oklahoma Woman Held for Slicing Fetus from Mother (washingtonpost.com)
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            Oklahoma Woman Held for Slicing Fetus from Mother 

            Reuters
            Tuesday, December 30, 2003; 3:13 PM 
            OKLAHOMA CITY (Reuters) - A 37-year-old woman pleaded not guilty on 
            Tuesday to charges of shooting dead a pregnant woman and then 
            slicing the fetus out of the mother's womb. 



            Effie Goodson, from Lamar, Oklahoma, was charged on Monday night 
            with two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Carolyn 
            Simpson, 21, and her fetus. Goodson had tried to convince family and 
            friends earlier this year that she was going to give birth, even 
            though she was not pregnant, police said. 
            At a courthouse in Hughes County, Goodson clutched her stomach and 
            spit in a garbage can as she entered her plea to the murder charges, 
            saying she was ill because she had stopped taking her medication. 
            Police said Goodson was being taken to a medical facility and they 
            did not know what medication she had been taking. 
            Goodson was detained by police on Dec. 23 after she brought a dead, 
            six-month-old fetus to a hospital in Holdenville, in southeast 
            Oklahoma, and claimed she was the mother. 
            Hospital authorities determined that Goodson did not give birth and 
            called law enforcement officials, who then took her into custody, 
            Hughes County Sheriff Houston Yeager said. 
            "She had a fetus with her claiming it belonged to her," said Yeager. 

            Goodson is suspected of killing Simpson with a gunshot in the head 
            and then using a knife to remove the six-month-old fetus in 
            Simpson's womb, police said. 
            Simpson's body was found last Friday by a hunter in a remote field 
            about 100 miles southeast of Oklahoma City. 
            Simpson had last been seen on Dec. 22, leaving the Creek County 
            Casino where she worked, in the company of Goodson, who gambled 
            there. 
            "She (Goodson) had told people she was pregnant and had been given a 
            baby shower. She even had her spouse believing her," Yeager said. 
            "It's really tough trying to figure this one out." 
            Oklahoma allows murder charges to be filed for the death of a fetus 
            that is at least 24 weeks old. 

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              (c) 2003 Reuters

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