A woman charged in connection with the murder of a Texas mother after she and her newborn daughter vanished in December is accused of faking a pregnancy as part of a plot to kidnap her friend and steal her child.
Magen Fieramusca, 33, also known as Maygen Humphrey, is facing two counts of kidnapping and one count of tampering with a corpse, according to Travis County inmate records. Fieramusca allegedly faked her pregnancy for months in an effort to steal the child of her friend Heidi Broussard, an arrest affidavit released Monday said.
"Magen Fieramusca presented Heidi Broussard's Newborn Child as her own to her boyfriend, Christopher Green," the affidavit claimed.
The two women had been friends for more than 10 years after having attended the Texas Bible Institute together in Columbus, Texas. Broussard's boyfriend, Shane Carey, told authorities that the two women became pregnant around the same time in 2019 and that he saw Fieramusca appear visibly pregnant during that time, the affidavit said.
Despite supposedly being 37 weeks pregnant herself, Fieramusca drove to Austin from her home in Houston on Nov. 25 after being told that Broussard had gone into labor, according to the arrest document. She stayed overnight at the apartment Broussard shared with her boyfriend and had access to a spare key, the affidavit said.
When Fieramusca, 33, left later, she claimed that she left the key in the home but the couple could not find it, Carey told authorities.
Based on video footage and a witness statement, authorities believe Fieramusca returned to Austin on Dec. 12 and kidnapped both Broussard and her newborn.
The next day, Fieramusca allegedly told her boyfriend that she went into labor and had their baby without him present, the affidavit said. She later told investigators that she did not remember the name of the birthing center where she had the baby and that no one went with her.
After Texas Rangers spoke to Green and showed him a flyer of Broussard and her missing newborn daughter, he told investigators, "That's the baby at my house."
Authorities performed a welfare check at the suspect's home where they found a baby who looked similar to Broussard's daughter. While performing the check, one Texas Ranger smelled the "immediate and unmistakable odor of decomposing flesh" coming from a Nissan Versa registered to Fieramusca.
A search of the car revealed a human corpse shoved into a black duffel bag in the trunk, the affidavit said.
The affidavit says the FBI Behavioral Analysis Unit provided an assessment of "maternal desire" for the case, when "mothers have lost a pregnancy or have falsified a pregnancy and have materialized the desire to have a child by taking possession of another child."
Fieramusca was in custody at the Travis County Correctional Complex as of Monday afternoon. Her bond for each kidnapping charge was set at $100,000 and an additional bond of $400,000 for her remaining charge.
Her attorney, Brian Erskine, in a statement Monday asked that the public resist the rush to judgment. "The cursory information contained in the recently released probable cause affidavit is nothing more than mere allegations," he said.