## Facts

- Jesse Iva Pate Warmke gave birth to an illegitimate infant in Louisville, Kentucky.
- On July 8, 1943, she traveled by bus with the baby to Cloverport, Kentucky, during heavy rain, and briefly sheltered in a drugstore where an employee loaned her a coat to wrap the child; she left a suitcase there.
- Around 10:30 p.m., Warmke called the employee to reopen the store so she could retrieve the suitcase; she returned the borrowed coat but did not have the baby.
- The next morning, Warmke appeared at a relative’s home; a town marshal questioned her after learning the baby was missing.
- Warmke first stated she attempted to cross a railroad trestle, stepped aside for an oncoming train, and accidentally dropped the baby into a creek below.
- Officers took her to the trestle; the creek was flooded with a swift current; a baby’s cap was found on the bank and Warmke identified it as her baby’s.
- The baby’s body was never recovered.
- After additional questioning, Warmke changed her account and stated she intentionally threw the baby into the creek because she could not face returning home with an illegitimate child.
- At trial, she repudiated the intentional-throw statement, claimed the fall was accidental, and asserted she was frightened and did not remember admitting intent.

## Issues

1. Whether the Commonwealth sufficiently proved the corpus delicti of homicide where the infant’s body was never found, so that a manslaughter conviction could stand.

## Decision

- The Court of Appeals of Kentucky affirmed the manslaughter conviction and nine-year sentence.
- The court held the corpus delicti was adequately established despite the absence of the body.
- The court concluded the jury could infer death and criminal agency from the circumstances and Warmke’s statements, including her trial testimony that the baby went into the creek.

## Legal Principles

- In a homicide prosecution, the corpus delicti may be proved by circumstantial evidence; recovery of the body is not required.
- A defendant’s admissions and trial testimony may be considered with other evidence to establish the corpus delicti, if the surrounding facts reasonably support inferences of death and criminal agency.
- The sufficiency of competing accounts (accident versus intentional act) and the weight of the defendant’s statements are questions for the jury when supported by corroborating circumstances.

## Conclusion

The court upheld Warmke’s manslaughter conviction because the evidence that the infant went from her custody into a flooded, fast-moving creek—corroborated by physical circumstances and her inconsistent statements—permitted the jury to find both death and criminal responsibility even though the body was never recovered.


Warmke v. Commonwealth, 297 Ky. 649 (Ky. Ct. App. 1944)