23-year-old mother charged with killing infant son

Troopers arrested Maria Coleen Boyd in her State College home Wednesday morning following a 17-month investigation into her newborn son's death, authorities said.

The 23-year-old mother was denied bail and incarcerated in the Centre County Correctional Facility after she was charged with first-degree murder and criminal homicide, according to court documents.

Authorities said Boyd called 911 last July when she found her 6-week-old son, Andrew, unresponsive in a bassinet in her former home on Mount Vernon Avenue in Smithfield Township, Huntingdon County.

An autopsy report said the infant had a fractured skull, a fractured arm, had alcohol in it's system and died from blunt force trauma to the abdomen.

Boyd covered her face with a hood and ignored questions when she was led into a bail hearing, but her mother insisted that Boyd was innocent.

"It's been very hard. Anybody that's lost a child would know. There's no words to say how one feels in a situation like this, it's just very hard," said Tina Liard. "I know my daughter is innocent."

Defense attorney Tom Dickey told 6News that he will ask a judge to drop the charges at a preliminary hearing.

"I looked at the (criminal) complaint. There doesn't look like there is any new information or any new evidence in there that hasn't been there for a year. Only thing I can think of, maybe the pressure was on to charge somebody," said Dickey. "There is at least two other persons that had access to the child when these alleged injuries that ... caused the death of this child occurred. We're surprised. You have to ask yourself, 'Why a year and a half later?' This occurred in July 2010. Here we are, a year and a half later, getting charged. There's no new evidence, no new revelation."

Huntingdon County District Attorney George Zanic said two pathologists and nearly 20 troopers have been working on the case and that more evidence connecting Boyd to her son's death is expected to surface soon.

"When you read the autopsy report, there's no questions what happened to this child. This child was murdered," said Zanic. "I can assure you, up until yesterday, we were still working on this arrest. There's been a lot done that's going to come out and that police have have done. It's an important case, a heartbreaking case and a serious case."