Before Danielle Downing appeared in court Thursday morning she was in court on Monday for another custody hearing. Her ex-boyfriend tells us, that day, she told him she was not pregnant.
Danielle Downing kept her head down as she denied questions from Action News. The 24-year-old was in court for an emergency custody hearing for her 3-year-old son. Downing was just granted visitation rights to the boy on Monday, but once her ex-boyfriend and father of their son, Jeremy Estes, heard about the criminal investigation into the death of Downing's newborn, he asked for another hearing to prevent her from seeing the boy.
Estes said, "I filed the emergency custody hearing just based on the basis of the fear of my son's safety."
Jeremy Estes says when he first saw Downing on Monday he thought she looked pregnant.
Estes said, "We were sitting in the mediators office side by side and she kept complaining that she wasn't feeling well her stomach was hurting I asked her twice if she was pregnant and she said no, she wasn't pregnant."
Just a few hours later, Farmersville Police say Downing gave birth to a little girl in her home. In the evening, the full-term newborn was discovered dead in a trash can by a family member.
Estes believes Danielle Downing was going into labor while they were in court earlier that day.
Estes said, "On the way back from the mediators office walking back to Judge Hillman's courtroom Ms. Downing had to make a stop at the restroom and she was in there for 10-15 minutes."
Danielle Downing was denied visitation to her son pending the results of the criminal investigation into her newborn's death. Farmersville Police are expected to release more information on the case after an autopsy of the baby is conducted. It's not clear if the baby was alive at birth.
