In early 2004, two men, Antonio Dejesus Idelfonso and Eliseo Marcelino-Quintero were driving past a woman on a Nashville street when she collapsed. They immediately stopped their pick up truck to see if they had hit her.
They found Tracey Owen, a 32-year old pregnant woman, lying on the road crying for help. Idelfonso told police that he responded, “Here’s your help,” and shot her five times. One of the bullets hit and killed her unborn baby.
They thought they had hit her with their pickup truck and feared they’d get in trouble.
At the time, no charges for the murder of the baby could be brought because the law only applied to an unborn child able to live outside the mother’s body.
As horrific as this crime is, something positive emerged from this tragedy. As of earlier this month, Tennessee expanded its Unborn Victims of Violence Act statute which now gives recognition to the humanity and life of unborn children assaulted or killed in the commission of a crime.
