CORBIN — By Samantha Swindler / Managing Editor

A Corbin woman has been charged with murder after giving birth to a baby girl in a prison restroom, allegedly stuffing the child’s mouth with toilet paper, and concealing the child’s body in a trash can.

Ashley Nicole Cox, 20, is charged with first-degree murder and concealing the birth of an infant, a Class A misdemeanor. She is being held on a combined $3 million bond at Oldham County jail and has an arraignment set this morning in Oldham County.

Cox was visiting 21-year-old inmate Justin Bell in the Roederer Correctional Facility in Oldham County on Sunday when she gave birth to the child.

She had apparently kept her pregnancy a secret from her employer and others interviewed by police.

“She hid it well,” Kentucky State Police Trooper Mike Webb said. “She was there with other individuals and according to interviews with them, they didn’t know she was pregnant.”

According to the Department of Corrections, Cox arrived at the prison at 8:43 a.m. Sunday with two other visitors. After going through the admittance process, she entered the visitation room at approximately 10 a.m. At about 10:55 a.m., Cox went to a single-stall bathroom for visitors.

“She was in there 10-12, max 15 minutes,” said Kentucky Department of Corrections spokesperson Lisa Lamb. “The staff became concerned because she was in there longer than a normal time to go to the bathroom, and they went and knocked on the door.”

Lamb said employees then saw blood on the floor.

“She had cleaned herself off and she was not indicating that she was in any type of stress at all,” Lamb said. Cox provided jail employees a reason explaining the blood, but due to health privacy laws, Lamb would not comment on what she reportedly said — but she did confirm Cox did not claim to have had a miscarriage or given birth.

“We even asked her (if it had been a miscarriage), and she adamantly denied it,” Lamb said. “Her medical reason she indicated had nothing to do with giving birth... Our staff immediately called EMS... She gave that same reason to them and she was transported to the hospital. Obviously, if she had said ‘I’ve had a miscarriage’ we would have been searching that restroom area from top to bottom.”

Cox was transported by ambulance to Baptist Hospital East at 11:44 a.m. Sunday. At approximately 4:03 p.m, prison staff were notified by Oldham County Dispatch that Cox had a full-term birth, “but the child was missing and might be in a trash can, in the restroom, in the visiting room.”

A search for the child began immediately, and the body was located at 4:29 p.m. Resuscitation efforts were not successful and the baby girl was later pronounced dead.

“There was an autopsy performed Monday morning and the preliminary autopsy revealed that the child was alive and healthy, it didn’t die from any medical abnormality or complication,” Trooper Webb said. “The child had air in its lungs, it was breathing. It died as a direct result of contact with the mother.”

An arrest citation states Cox “intentionally forced toilet paper into the infant’s mouth until the infant was not able to breathe and suffocated on the obstruction.” She then allegedly put the child in a trash can and covered it with paper.

“Ashley was deceptive with individuals who questioned her about whether she was pregnant or had given birth and failed to report the birth of the infant to the correction officers and the nurse employed by the institution that had responded to the bathroom,” the citation states.

Cox is employed as a teacher’s assistant by Beautiful Beginnings daycare in Corbin. Daycare owner Rob Low said Cox is now on unpaid administrative leave since she has not yet been convicted of any crime.

Low said he was “shocked” about the charges against Cox, and said he didn’t even know Cox was pregnant.

“It’s overwhelming,” he said.

Cox had worked at the daycare for more than a year. Per state law, Beautiful Beginnings ran a criminal background check on her when she was hired.

“We go above and beyond at the center for legal purposes, and we pretty much check everyone once a year,” Low said. “She had nothing in her record at all that had any child abuse.”

Webb said the relationship between Cox and Bell, the inmate she was visiting, was unclear. Bell was convicted of second- and third-degree burglary and theft by unlawful taking in Whitley County last May and has been incarcerated for more than 10 months.

Webb said Cox is still technically married, and her legal last name is Jones. She also has a two-year-old daughter.

Webb also said Cox had an arrest warrant for bad checks stemming from the Corbin area.

Police have not yet determined the identity of the infant’s father.