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Relative: Woman accused of cutting out baby had son die

LONGMONT, Colo. (AP/MEDIA GENERAL) – A relative says a woman accused of stabbing a pregnant stranger in the belly and taking out her unborn baby lost her own child more than a decade ago when he accidentally drowned.

Aaron Cruz, the boy’s paternal grandfather, says Dynel Lane’s son was 19 months old when he drowned in a shallow pond at her parents’ home in Pueblo. Investigators ruled the 2002 death an accident.

Cruz says Lane and her now-ex-husband were devastated by the child’s death. But he says Lane seemed to be a good mother and he saw no indication she would be violent.

Lane is accused of luring the expectant mother with a Craigslist ad about baby clothes. The woman, who was seven months pregnant, is expected to survive, but her unborn baby died.

Under Colorado law, homicide charges in the baby’s death are very unlikely.

“The issues involving an unborn child are complicated under Colorado law,” said Boulder County District Attorney Stan Garnett. “In most circumstances, if a child was not actually born alive, then homicide charges are not possible.”