Tx. Woman Accused of Kidnapping Slain Best Friend and Newborn Allegedly Pretended Baby Was Hers

The Texas woman accused of kidnapping her best friend and the friend’s newborn allegedly pretended the baby was her own in the days after her friend vanished, according to newly-released court documents.

In an arrest affidavit, Texas authorities allege that the suspect, Magen Rose Fieramusca, “presented Heidi Broussard’s newborn child as her own to her boyfriend,” KVUE, KXAN and the Austin-American Statesmen report.

Fieramusca has been charged with two counts of third-degree kidnapping and tampering with a corpse in the death of longtime friend 33-year-old Heidi Broussard.

Broussard and her 3-week-old baby Margo Carey were reported missing on Dec. 12. A week later, Broussard was found dead in the trunk of a car at Fieramusca’s Houston-area home and Margo was found alive and healthy in Fieramusca’s home.

According to the affidavit, authorities spoke with a tipster who reported seeing a woman believed to be Broussard getting into a car at her apartment complex with her baby and another woman on Dec. 11 or Dec. 12. When authorities returned with a lineup of possible suspects, the tipster picked out Fieramusca’s picture as the other woman.

 

During their investigation, authorities found that Fieramusca’s phone was in the Austin area, near Broussard and her fiancé’s apartment on Dec. 12. They also found Fieramusca had searched some form of “Heidi Broussard” 162 times online between Nov. 11 and Dec. 18, and also searched “bodies found in Austin Texas,” the affidavit alleges.

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When Broussard delivered her baby, Fieramusca was in the delivery room with her and even held her hand, PEOPLE previously reported. The pair had met years earlier at a Bible institute.

RELATED: Woman Accused of Kidnapping Slain Best Friend and Her Newborn Allegedly ‘Wanted’ the Baby: Mom

According to Broussard’s close friend Vickie Shreves, who was also in the delivery room at the time, Fieramusca told her she was pregnant and due to deliver her baby within a week of the day baby Margo was born. Shreves said that, to her, Fieramusca did not seem like someone who was about to give birth. At the hospital, Fieramusca clutched a pillow over her stomach, Shreves said.

While conducting surveillance on Fieramusca, authorities spoke with the owner of her home. When they showed him a picture of Broussard and Margo, the owner told them, “That’s the baby at my house,” the affidavit states.

The owner told authorities he and Fieramusca had dated but had broken up in March and still lived together, though it is unclear if the owner is the same person referenced in the affidavit as Fieramusca’s boyfriend. The owner said Fieramusca told him she was pregnant but said he never saw Fieramusca’s bare stomach. He said he believed he was the father of her supposed child.

During an interview with a Texas Ranger, Fieramusca said she had given birth at a birthing center on Dec. 12. When pushed for more details, Fieramusca was allegedly unable to given a name for the birthing center and then told the Texas Ranger she gave birth alone.

RELATED: Woman Accused of Kidnapping Slain Best Friend and Her Newborn Allegedly ‘Wanted’ the Baby: Mom

Shortly after their interview, authorities searched Fieramusca’s home and noted the “unmistakable odor of decomposing flesh” coming from her car’s trunk. Upon further inspection, they found Broussard’s body stuffed in a black duffel bag in the trunk.

On Monday, Fieramusca’s attorney released the following statement to local station KVUE:

“ Jackie Wood and I are anxious to review the evidence collected thus far and have many of the same questions you do. Those accused, as well as the public at large, understandably want swift and certain answers from our criminal justice system. We call upon patience and resisting the rush to judgment until all the facts are in. The cursory information contained in the recently released probable cause affidavit is nothing more than mere allegations. As with every American accused of a crime, unless the State has proven these allegations beyond any reasonable doubt, Ms. Fieramusca remains innocent.”

It is unclear where Broussard was killed. An autopsy found she had been strangled to death but nobody has been charged in her death.

“Heidi had so many friends. Everybody loved her. We thought Magen loved her too,” Broussard’s mother Tammy previously told PEOPLE. “But evidently that wasn’t the case. She wanted Margo, is what she wanted.”