In addition to possession with the intent to deliver meth, 49-year-old William Jones is also charged with the abuse of a corpse. He is accused of covering up his girlfriend's stillbirth by burning the baby's body and then burying it.
"This is a reminder of how dangerous that drug is," said Mike Noone, Chester County's first assistant district attorney.
In addition to allegedly selling meth, Jones and 29-year-old Anita Depedro were also using it.
"The indications are that the mother had been using the drug, and that's probably what led to the stillborn birth, and then the father's horrific actions," he said.
The couple was being investigated for selling meth out of their trailer on Egan Circle in Honey Brook, when investigators got a tip about the stillborn child. The remains were never recovered, but according to a criminal complaint, Jones told police he did it because he didn’t know what else to do and didn’t want Depedro to get in trouble.
Abuse of corpse is a second-degree misdemeanor — a lesser charge than the drugs — but Noone says it’s the highest they can charge since, by all accounts, the child was stillborn and never alive outside of the womb.