Wednesday, June 19, 2013

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Alaska Mom Admits to Suffocating 3-Week-Old Daughter With Plastic Bag
Sarah Johnson, 33, will be arraigned Wednesday afternoon for murder in the death of her infant daughter
By Grace Jang
Bio | Email | Follow: @GraceJangKTVA By Colleen Kelly


According to the District Attorney's office, 33-year-old Sarah Bentley Johnson is currently being arraigned for murder in the death of her three-week-old daughter, Pepper, Wednesday afternoon.

Johnson was taken into custody around midnight last night after she admitted to suffocating her baby with a plastic bag two weeks ago; the baby, Johnson's only child, died Aug. 5.

A friend of the mother reported the crime the following week.

Charging documents indicate that Johnson sent a text message to her sister in Idaho the day after her baby died. The mother wrote that Pepper had died and she didn't want to talk.

Johnson later texted her sister again and wrote that she, her sister and their mother needed to "take this secret to the grave."

The day before three-week-old Pepper died on Aug. 4, Johnson posted on her Facebook page: "Almost every moment of everyday I wish I had made a different choice."

According to charging documents, Johnson stopped taking Prozac, a drug used to treat depression, panic attacks and obsessive-compulsive disorder, during her pregnancy and while breastfeeding.

Family members also told Anchorage police that Johnson was suicidal.