In August 1988, Tammy Sue Kerns was a 20-year-old Air Force X-ray technician. She was hiding her pregnancy from everyone.<\/p>\n
Kerns went into labor while she was working during the night shift at the regional hospital at Sheppard Air Force Base in Wichita Falls, she would tell law enforcement agents 36 years later.<\/p>\n
Kerns hid herself in the ultrasound room and locked the door. Once she delivered the baby boy, she placed her hand over his mouth until he stopped breathing, according to a fact narrative with which Kerns said she agreed and that was filed earlier this month in U.S. District Court.<\/p>\n
Kerns cut the umbilical cord and wrapped it around her newborn.<\/p>\n
Kerns surrounded the dead baby in linens and placed him in a laundry bin, cleaned the room and returned to work.<\/p>\n
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Dallas-Fort Worth earlier this month charged Kerns with second-degree murder, a deliberate and intentional killing, or one done with callous and wanton disregard for human life. Last week, Kerns pleaded guilty to the offense.<\/p>\n
Under a plea agreement, Kerns’ punishment range is five to 20 years in prison. Chief U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor will assess a sentence at a hearing in Fort Worth in January.<\/p>\n
On Aug. 4, 1988, the dead full-term infant was found in a bin at Ponds Laundry in Wichita Falls wrapped in linens from the Sheppard base hospital.<\/p>\n
An autopsy report indicated there was evidence of live birth. A pathologist determined that the cause of death was hypovolemia and anemia, according to the fact narrative document.<\/p>\n
All known pregnant patients and newborns at the hospital and on the base were still there when the body was found. There were no suspects. The investigation was closed.<\/p>\n
In August 2015, the Air Force Office of Special Investigation reopened the case, according to the fact narrative document. Agents conducted new interviews. In May 2022, tissue samples taken during the autopsy were sent to Othram, a private DNA lab.<\/p>\n
ln 2023, Othram identified the potential father, whom agents interviewed. The man said that he was stationed at the Andrews Air Force Base hospital from October 1984 to May 2003.<\/p>\n
The man said he had multiple sex partners in 1987 and did not recall their names. He said that none of his sex partners informed him between 1987 and 1988 that they were pregnant.<\/p>\n
Agents analyzed 1987 and 1988 rosters from Andrews AFB and Sheppard AFB and determined there was only one female Airman stationed at Andrews AFB during the time of conception who was also stationed at Sheppard AFB at the time of birth.<\/p>\n
Kerns served in the Air Force from 1986 to 1996. She was stationed at Andrews AFB in 1986 and transferred to Sheppard AFB in early 1988.<\/p>\n
In May 2025, agents interviewed Kerns outside of custody, and she admitted to carrying out the killing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In August 1988, Tammy Sue Kerns was a 20-year-old Air Force X-ray technician. She was hiding her pregnancy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":437448,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[27009,116,118,117,151579,87800,151578],"class_list":["post-437447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-worth","tag-air-force","tag-fort-worth","tag-fort-worth-headlines","tag-fort-worth-news","tag-regional-hospital","tag-sheppard-air-force-base","tag-tammy-sue-kerns"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=437447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437447\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/437448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=437447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=437447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=437447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}