TROY — A brown mobile home at 211 North Dixmont Road in Troy was empty and quiet Saturday, a day after Miranda Hopkins, who lived there with her three children, was arrested by Maine State Police on a charge that she murdered her 7-week-old son.
Hopkins, 32, faces a first court appearance on the murder charge Tuesday, Department of Public Safety spokesman Steve McCausland said by phone Saturday.
Hopkins called 911 from her trailer home Thursday morning, saying her baby, Jaxson Hopkins, was unresponsive, McCausland said in a news release Friday night. The infant, who was born Nov. 21, was pronounced dead at the scene.
McCausland said an autopsy was conducted by the state medical examiner Thursday, but the cause of death is not being released immediately.
“There will be no more information until the court appearance Tuesday — I’m assuming at Belfast District Court — but that will depend on the availability of a judge on Tuesday,” McCausland said Saturday.
McCausland would not discuss the cause or manner of death or if a weapon was used in the infant’s death. He said Hopkins was initially taken to the Waldo County Jail and will be transferred to the Two Bridges Jail in Wiscasset.
Hopkins lived with Jaxson and two other sons, ages 6 and 8. Those boys are now with relatives, McCausland said.
A mail carrier on Saturday on North Dixmont Road confirmed the trailer is the home of Hopkins, but said he has never spoken to the woman. There are no other houses nearby in the heavily wooded area of Troy, where in 2015 a fatal accident occurred near the Hopkins home.
A cross with the name Scott Anderson is nailed to one of the trees.
Scott Anderson Jr., 24, of Freedom, the driver of the car, was killed, and three others were seriously injured July 21, 2015, when a car crashed on North Dixmont Road. Police said the 2001 Chevrolet Impala that Anderson was driving veered off the road and hit trees around 8:43 p.m. just south of the intersection with Barker Road.
The closest house to the Hopkins’ residence is well down the road at 197 North Dixmont Road. A keep out sign is posted at the top of the driveway.
Another neighbor down the road in the other direction said he did not know the Hopkins family.
Two cars with snow on them were parked in the yard Saturday. Children’s toys, tools and trash were scattered in the hard snow. Two chickens huddled in the sun under a small wood shed, while a friendly, jet-black cat roamed the yard, sidling up to a visitor.
No one answered the door of the mobile home. Old pumpkins sat on the stairs of the porch. A Christmas wreath with a red bow on it sat nearby.
The Hopkins case is a second recent incident of a mother allegedly killing her infant child.
Kayla Stewart, 21, pleaded guilty Jan. 4 to a manslaughter charge in connection with the death of her infant son.
Stewart was sentenced to 15 years in prison, with all but nine years suspended, followed by four years of probation. The two sides had reached an agreement of a maximum sentence of 25 years with a minimum sentence of five years before Judge Robert Murray imposed the sentence at Somerset County Superior Court in Skowhegan.
State prosecutors say that after Stewart gave birth to the full-term, healthy baby boy, she killed him by either smothering or suffocating the child, or by leaving him in a cold, unheated garage to die. She allegedly told a state police detective that she “made sure” the baby was dead.
Doug Harlow — 612-2367
Twitter:@Doug_Harlow
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