LANSING — A 25-year-old woman accused of killing her first baby in late 2013 is being held without bond as police wait for test results to determine if a dead infant found in a southeast Michigan recycling plant is her second child.

Melissa Mitin

Melissa Mitin is facing charges of open murder and concealing the death of a newborn child for an incident that took place in the 2000 block of Belding Court in Okemos on Dec. 26, 2013. Meridian Township Police Lt. Greg Frenger said Mitin concealed her pregnancy from her family and, on the date in question, gave birth to a baby girl.

“She was not at her home, she was at another person’s home,” Frenger said. “Her parents at that time did not have power (because of the ice storm that hit the Lansing area in December 2013).”

Mitin is accused of putting that child face down in a trash bin, leaving her to die. According to the Lansing State Journal, medical officials determined the baby girl died of position asphyxiation and the placenta and umbilical cord were still attached to the child.

It wasn’t until five months later, in May 2014, that Mitin was formally charged with the death of the child. When an Ingham County magistrate arraigned her, Mitin received a 10 percent of $50,000 bond, meaning she could leave jail if $5,000 was posted.

A family member posted that bond and Mitin walked free on June 5, court records show. There were no conditions attached to the bond.

Prosecutor Stuart Dunnings III said prosecutors did not argue for a certain bond when Mitin was arraigned. He said she had no criminal history, no reason to believe she wouldn’t appear in court, no apparent mental health issues, no substance abuse issues, strong ties to the community and wasn’t a threat to anyone else.

“The bond was reasonable when you look at the facts of the case,” Dunnings said.

Mitin’s court case was on track to go to trial. A jury trial date was set for Feb. 23, and everything seemed to be going according to schedule.

But then Ingham County prosecutors got some shocking news.

On Monday, prosecutors found out that Mitin had told doctors she was approximately 35 weeks pregnant in a December visit, Dunnings said. In a family court hearing Tuesday, Mitin said she had given birth to a baby boy.

Then she made a stunning admission: Mitin said she doesn’t know where the child is. Prosecutors were incredulous, Dunnings said.

“I never could have imagined such a thing,” he said. “I don’t know if anyone could have imagined such a thing.”

Dunnings said prosecutors and other individuals connected to the case did not know Mitin was pregnant with another child until Monday. He said it was likely she was pregnant with the second child when she was formally charged in the first case back in May.

“She probably knew and didn’t tell anyone,” he said.

In a court hearing on Wednesday, prosecutors asked Ingham County Circuit Court Judge James Jamo to revoke Mitin’s bond and send her to the Ingham County Jail. She’s now held in the facility, and a competency exam has been ordered.

Competency exams are ordered to determine if defendants have the mental capability to understand they’re accused of committing a crime and if they understand the trial process. They usually take between two and three months to complete.

Dunnings said the focus now is on finding Mitin’s baby boy.

Frenger said it's possible that might have already happened. Roseville police were alerted to the discovery of the body of an infant child in a recycling sorting center. DNA tests are being done on the child to determine if the infant is Mitin's missing baby boy.

“The body was found Wednesday at a recycling center mixed in with the recycling,” Frenger said. “how it arrived there or who put it in a recycling container somewhere, we don’t know.”

The baby is a white male estimated to be one to three days old.

Workers discovered the newborn at around 11 p.m. Wednesday while sorting through recyclables. A bundle came down the sorting line, and when workers opened it up they found the baby.

Meridian Township police are working with Roseville police and Michigan State Police to determine where the body came from. The Roseville recycling center accepts materials from all over the state of Michigan, so it’s possible the baby could have been in a shipment of materials from the Ingham County area.

Frenger said police are hoping tests come back and show the child found in Roseville is not Mitin’s missing son and they might be able to find the child alive and well.

Police don’t know if Mitin had been in Roseville recently and are asking members of the public to contact them with information about her whereabouts in recent weeks.

“We’re hoping we can get some good information from the public on information they might have about Melissa Mitin coming and going and if she’s been seen with a child in the last few weeks,” Frenger said.

A message was left with Frank Reynolds, Mitin’s attorney, seeking comment for this story.

Kyle Feldscher is the Capitol education and MSU reporter for MLive Media Group. Reach him via email at kylefeldscher@mlive.com or follow him on Twitter at @Kyle_Feldscher. Read more stories here.