No appeal makes verdict final in newborn’s death case

The verdict in the case of a newborn found dead at the Nickelsdorf border crossing last January is final after prosecutors in Eisenstadt filed no appeal, ORF Burgenland reported.

The sentence of 18 months in prison without parole for the baby’s mother, now 18, stands. Her sister, brother-in-law, brother and mother were acquitted of involvement in murder.

The jury court reached five unanimous decisions last Friday. The mother was convicted of killing a child during birth; her four relatives were acquitted. All five defendants had pleaded not guilty and accepted the verdicts.

The trial found that the mother, then 17, likely strangled and beat the baby shortly after giving birth on 17 January 2026. She then left the newborn’s body behind a transformer station at the border crossing. Two men found it the following day.

The woman had been travelling with her relatives in a minibus from Romania to Germany. Surveillance footage showed the vehicle stopping in Nickelsdorf and the woman carrying a bag towards the transformer station. Prosecutors could not prove that her relatives had noticed the birth or helped her. They said they knew neither of the pregnancy nor the birth, and that she had explained blood in the vehicle as menstrual blood.