(The below are background additional readings in support of the post I put out earlier this evening, Andrea Curry-Demus: The raw face of baby desperation/obesession if readers have not already seen that piece, go there first.)

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In this piece, Body Found In Apartment Belonging To Woman Who Said She Bought Baby/Police: Woman Confessed To Buying Newborn For $1,000 (WPXI.com with contributions from the AP, originally published July 17th, revised July 18th, ’08) we learn that Andrea Curry-Demus apparently put herself forward as pregnant, going so far as to have a baby shower with the neighbors:

Neighbors of Curry-Demus thought she was pregnant and some even attended a baby shower for her. “Everybody’s wondering where are all the gifts everybody bought her,” said a neighbor who did not want to be identified.

While this COULD line up with her tale of having a miscarriage a month ago and then arranging to ‘buy “Tina’s” baby upon birth’ (which clearly is not what happened) to cover for her lack of her own ‘pregnancy’ (?), I urge readers to remain cautious. Currently we have no evidence Andrea was pregnant at any point in the last year, and at this point we have so many different stories from Andrea it’s going to take some time to sort it all out. We do know (from a story listed below) that even after the supposed ‘miscarriage’ ‘a month ago’, she continued to present herself as pregnant to neighbors etc.

We also learn that the child was apparently born last Wednesday.

Police said the child in the latest case was born on July 16.

Police said the baby is doing fine.

Finally, we find Curry-Demus was arraigned this morning (before the body was found):

Curry-Demus is charged with endangering the welfare of a child. She was arraigned Friday and jailed until she posts $10,000 bond and undergoes a psychiatric exam.

This piece, Police: Woman Allegedly Bought Newborn Baby (KDKA.com July 18th, ’08), is a good citation for Curry-Demus having claimed initially to have given birth herself:

Andrea Curry-Demus, 38, allegedly told police she purchased a newborn baby boy from a woman.

The bizarre story began when paramedics took Demus to West Penn Hospital from a home in Wilkinsburg.

She claimed to have just given birth to the baby. The umbilical cord was still attached. The doctors were suspicious and tests showed she was not the mother.

According to this bit, she was known as “Andrea Curry” back around the time of her earlier ‘baby frenzy’ incidents, and the name change may have been part of why it took police time to understand her past history:

KDKA has learned that Demus made news 18 years ago when she was accused of abducting a baby from Children’s Hospital.

That same year, when she was known only as Curry, was also charged with stabbing a woman in an alleged plot to steal a newborn baby from a home in Wilkinsburg.

also

The baby remains at West Penn Hospital and is in good shape.

In this Pittsburgh Tribune-Review article, Woman tells police she paid $1,000 for newborn (July 18th, ’08) that claim of Curry-Demus having given birth herself is expanded to an alleged premature birth. We also learn the call to the paramedics took place Wednesday evening:

The woman called paramedics at 10:45 p.m. Wednesday and told hospital personnel that she gave birth prematurely and needed help. She and the baby were transported to West Penn.

Doctors became suspicious because the woman didn’t appear to have just given birth, and the baby looked full-term. They examined the woman and baby in the emergency room and called authorities.

Blood and hormone tests determined the woman is not the baby’s mother, police said.

“That child does not belong to her,” said city police Cmdr. Thomas Stangrecki. “We don’t know where she got the baby, whether someone gave it to her or how she came to have that child with her. But she didn’t give birth.”

Curry-Demus, wearing a striped green dress, was led from the Wilkinsburg police station last night in handcuffs for arraignment.

“I didn’t do nothin’,” she said in response to reporters’ questions.

The article then elaborates on her alleged baby buying arrangement, and Curry-Demus’ claim that “Tina” arrived at her apartment with a newborn wrapped in a towel :

She said she gave Tina $500 to purchase the infant and gave her some clothes and other personal items over the past few days. She gave Tina another $500 sometime in July to purchase the baby.

She said Tina arrived at her door on Wednesday, carrying the newborn wrapped in a towel.

Curry-Demus said Tina gave her the infant and left. She said she called paramedics because the child needed medical attention for the umbilical cord.

State court records show that Curry-Demus, then known as Andrea Nichole Curry, pleaded guilty in 1991 to aggravated assault and reckless endangerment and was sentenced to 10 years’ probation.

In this Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article, Police investigating discovery of body in Wilkinsburg originally published earlier this afternoon, before the body was found in the apartment, we gain a few other details, first the police had put out a description of “Tina” as they were still searching for her:

“We’re looking for the young lady that gave birth,” said Chief Coleman. “What we need is anybody who has seen, heard or knows this young lady to contact us immediately” at 412-244-2913. The woman’s name is “Tina” according to Ms. Curry-Demus, and she is described as a black woman in her 20s, about 5 feet 3 inches. “She is, we feel, in danger, because she needs medical help,” said Chief Coleman, adding that information from Ms. Curry-Demus is “very sketchy,” and doesn’t include the woman’s last name or where she lives.

We also find the other apartment that police searched earlier was also on Ella Street:

Chief Coleman said officers had earlier checked an apartment on Ella Street, but it may not have been Ms. Curry-Demus’. They found nothing there, she said.

This KDKA.com piece Neighbors Stunned By Allegations In Baby Case (filed at 4:50pm, today, July 18th,’08) gives us a picture of Andrea:

The article itself provides many new details. First we learn that Andrea’s mother’s house is apparently “just a short distance from her own.” (IF this is the ‘other apartment’ on Ella Street, this then could be the home Andrea’s sister misdirected the police to.)

Again mention of the spectacle of all the trappings of a baby shower, and preparations for a baby boy at the home, (how she knew the sex of “Tina’s” baby remains a question, it suggests previous knowledge of “Tina” and her likely haven gotten some medical diagnostics at some point in the pregnancy):

On the front porch of Andrea Curry-Demus’s mother’s home just a short distance from her own, baby shower decorations remain today heralding the expectation of a baby boy to come.

One stunned neighbor says, “Everybody in her community came to her baby shower, with gifts and stuff, we really thought she was pregnant, she was even showing., her stomach was big I thought she was really having a baby.”

That was about a month ago, around the same time Curry-Demus told police last night after her arrest that she had a miscarriage which she knew would be devastating to her mother. “She didn’t want to tell her initially,” says Detective Rich Grande of the Wilkinsburg Police. “That could be a motive behind this whole thing.”

Curry-Demus apparently has created multiple versions of a birth mythos, first claiming that she (Andrea) had given birth (supposedly prematurely) and then later, contradicting herself, claiming she had had a miscarriage and arranged payment to “Tina” who upon giving birth then according to Andrea showed up at her apartment with the child (wrapped in a towel.) Clearly with the discovery of the body at Andrea’s apartment, something else perhaps with or without some aspects of these stories woven in happened:

Curry-Demus told police last night she sought out another pregnant woman and made a $1,000-deal to buy the baby when it was born. Detective Grande says the money was paid in advance. When the baby was born on Wednesday, Curry-Demus told police the birth mother delivered the boy to her apartment on Ella Street with its umbilical chord still attached.

After the determination is made at the hospital that Curry-Demus was not the biological mother, the police learned that she had a previous history under the name “Andrea Curry”:

When she was confronted police say Curry-Demus spelled out the baby buying scheme but could not identify the birth mother beyond the name “Tina.”

It was only then police learned that in 1990 when she was still Andrea Curry she pleaded guilty to stabbing a woman in a failed attempt to seal her infant. The next day she was accused of abducting a new born from Childrens Hospital. She was sentenced to 10 years probation on the assault charge.

She was being held (as of this afternoon) in the Allegheny County Jail:

Andrea Curry-Demus is in the Allegheny County Jail being held on $10,000 cash bond and awaiting a mental health evaluation.

The news of the (Mother’s?) body being found by police broke this evening in the six (pm) o’clock hour. (See Cops: Body at home of woman who claimed baby buy AP, July 18th, ’08, posted at 6:47)