Man On Trial For Killing Uniontown Infant 10 Years Ago

UNIONTOWN, Pa.,None — A man accused in the death of a newborn in Uniontown is on trial 10 years after the crime.

Police said the case went unsolved until last year. Opening arguments in the case began Monday.

Warren Bircher, 34, is charged with criminal homicide in the death of "baby Mary." Prosecutors argued that Bircher took the baby after she was born, stuffed it into a backpack and drowned the baby in Cove Run Creek.

Bircher's defense attorneys claim the baby's mother killed and dumped the baby and that Bircher had nothing to do with it.

It was June 4 2000, when a fisherman found the baby inside of the backpack. The case went unsolved until 2008 when police used DNA to determine that Sarah Sue Hawk, 26, was the mother. Hawk then told police that Bircher was tied to the death.

DNA tests later found that another man was the baby's father, but Hawk said Bircher was still part of the plot to kill the child. Hawk eventually pleaded guilty to third-degree homicide.

Channel 11's Dave Bondy found out that Bircher will testify in his own defense and that Hawk will take the stand.

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