Michelle Wilkins is recounting the terrifying moment a stranger attacked her and sliced her open, removing her unborn child from her womb. Photo / Dr. Phil
Michelle Wilkins is recounting the terrifying moment a stranger attacked her and sliced her open, removing her unborn child from her womb. Photo / Dr. Phil
The Colorado woman who had her unborn baby cut from her womb by a stranger has spoken about the heartbreaking moment she held her dead daughter in her arms.
Michelle Wilkins was eight-months pregnant when she went to the Longmont home of Dynel Lane after answering a Craigslist post advertising maternity clothing, and that is where she was knocked out and cut open.
Her daughter Aurora died but Wilkins, 26, miraculously managed to survive - and with her partner Dan spend a few unforgettable moments as a family.
"Dan and I thought she was the most beautiful thing we had ever seen," said Wilkins in a clip from her upcoming appearance on the season premiere of Dr. Phil, which airs Monday.
"And I was just so grateful to have her even for her short and small life. I think she was perfect."
"Sets them in a bag and hands them to me. She just started conversation and I finally started walking towards the door, was at the door, ready to walk outside, and she said, 'Oh, I have some girl clothes downstairs that someone gave me before I found out I was having a boy, do you want them?'
"And intuitively, I had that sensation wash over me, I have everything I need."
Wilkins then said; "But for fear of being impolite, I decided to stay. She actually physically reached across me and closed the door in front of me."
That is when she claims Lane began to attack her, though at first she suggested she was helping Wilkins.
"When she attacked me, she hit my back. It was very aggressive and hard, and I asked her, 'Was there a spider on me?' and she said, 'Yeah, I think I got it,'" said Wilkins.
"And then she continued. I turned around pulled my hands up and said 'What are you doing?' And said, 'I just want to leave, I don't want to hurt you.'
"I started walking toward the door, and she grabbed me very roughly, pushing me deeper into the house towards the bathroom. We jostled a little bit in the hallway as I tried to push my way back towards the door.
"She's pushing me deeper into the house. Finally, we get all the way in front of the bathroom and she just lurches me sideways into the back bedroom. There are so many what if's that go through your head.
"We struggle and she keeps telling me she's that going to call the police on me. I pull out my phone and I said, 'well I'll call the police' and that's when the real struggle begins and she just throws me to the bed and tries to suffocate me with the pillow, with her hands and it had this nightmarish quality.
"She broke something over my head and I Just felt the liquid wash over me, and I just kept saying, 'Why, why are you doing this? Why?'"
Wilkins also told Dr Phil; "My core belief is that love motivates. I told her I loved her, and in turn she stabbed me."
According to Wilkins, Lane said to her during the attack; "If you love me, you will let me do this."
She woke up not knowing what had happened, and called 911, saving her own life.
Lane is being held on a $2 million bail sum and pleaded not guilty to eight felony counts including first-degree unlawful termination of pregnancy, attempted first-degree murder and first-degree assault in July and is set to go on trial in early 2016.
She admitted to committing the crime according to a police affidavit but claimed she cut the baby out to save it after Wilkins tried to stab her.
She allegedly told her husband she gave birth on the stairs and they took the child to the hospital where Lane would not let go of the dead child and kept referring to her as "my son."
It has now been almost six months since the attack, but it does not get any easier for Wilkins, who moved from the area shortly after to deal with her loss.
She wrote on Facebook in August; "Today is five months. Yes, still unbelievably difficult."
