A SOUTH African woman appeared in court yesterday accused of leaving a pregnant woman for dead after slicing her open and stealing the unborn child from her womb.

Loretta Cooke (29) from Randfontein in west Johannesburg was remanded in custody at Randfontein Magistrate Court after state prosecutors were granted an adjournment to allow them investigate the case further.

The grisly murder was perpetrated last week, but the police initially thought 34-year-old Valencia Behrens had bled to death after giving birth. In addition, they could not locate the deceased’s newborn baby at the crime scene.

However, police spokeswoman Appel Ernest said a postmortem carried out on Ms Behrens revealed the horrific nature of the crime, and local medical clinic staff led them to the baby and Ms Cooke, who had brought the child in for a check-up.

“The stomach of a 34-year-old woman was cut open with a sharp object and her baby taken out. The suspect was later arrested when she showed up at a clinic with a newborn baby with a cut on its head,” police spokeswoman Appel Ernst told reporters.

Ms Ernest went on to say that the baby had been retrieved and was doing well in hospital, but the mother had not survived the attack.

It has been reported that neighbours of Ms Cooke said she pretended to be pregnant for months before attacking the expectant mother, and she even threw herself a baby shower a week before she cut the child from the deceased’s womb.

Ms Cooke is expected to make a bail application on February 7th.