St. Cloud woman pleads to 2nd-degree murder for death of 3-month-old infant

A St. Cloud woman has pleaded guilty to killing her infant in 2021, according to court records.

Fardoussa Abdillahi, 28, was initially indicted and charged in December 2021 with one count of first-degree murder and one count of second-degree murder for the death of her 3-month-old infant.

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On Thursday, Abdillahi pleaded guilty to one count of second-degree murder in exchange for the dismissal of the first-degree murder charge, court records show.

Prior to Abdillahi’s guilty plea, Stearns County prosecutors filed a motion to seek an aggravated sentence due to the fact that the victim was an infant and was treated with “particular cruelty.”

On Nov. 28, 2021, officers from the St. Cloud Police Department responded to an apartment on Maine Prairie Road on a report of a mother saying she had thrown her baby in the dumpster.

Officials say Abdillahi contacted multiple witnesses, including her mother, and told them she had put her child in the dumpster. Several of the witnesses came to the scene to try to find the child.

After the officers arrived, Abdillahi told them she had cut the child across the throat and put him in a black plastic garbage bag before placing him in the dumpster. Court records say officers located the deceased child in the dumpster shortly after.

After officers arrested Abdillahi, she told them she had experienced headaches and feelings of fear after she gave birth. Abdillahi told law enforcement the child’s father had denied being the father and on the day of the murder, she was looking at her child and wondering how she was going to get help.

Her sentencing is now set for Oct. 18.