The teenager caught carrying a baby's body in her shopping bag.

When Tiona Rodriguez was caught shoplifting at a Victoria’s Secret store in New York, security guards thought they had a regular case of teenage shop theft on their hands.

But when they searched the young woman’s bag, they made a sickening discovery: Ms Rodriguez, then 17, was carrying the body of a newborn baby.

Now Ms Rodriguez has been charged with second degree murder over the horrifying 2013 incident, Metro reports.

Fox8 News reports Ms Rodriguez gave birth in secret to the little boy on October 16 2013, in the bath at a friend’s home. According to prosecutors, she ripped the 3.6-kilogram boy’s umbilical cord “with her bare hands”.

Her lawyer Earl Ward claimed the baby was stillborn, and that the confused young teenager didn’t know what to do with its body, the Daily News reports.

But a medical examiner has ruled the baby died from asphyxiation, according to WABC. Prosecutors argue the teenager concealed her pregnancy, callously plotted weeks before the birth to kill the baby, then killed her baby when he was just minutes old.

According to prosecutors, Ms Rodriguez stowed his lifeless body in her bag. Then the next day, they allege, she stopped by Victoria’s Secret to shoplift a USD45 pair of pants, where she was caught with the boy’s foul-smelling body.

Adding to the case’s intrigue is that fact that Ms Rodriguez was well experienced in concealing her pregnancies, having previously hidden two.

The Brooklyn-raised teenager gave birth for the first time at 14 in 2011, after concealing her growing baby bump from her family, New York Times reports. Her mother now cares for that four-year-old boy.

Prosecutors say the teenager concealed another pregnancy a year later. That baby was never found, and has been ruled a miscarriage.

Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Rachel Ferrari claims Ms Rodriguez plotted for weeks to murder her baby boy.

“She knew she would be in big trouble if her family found out, so she made a plan – to kill this baby,” Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Rachel Ferrari said.

“She had derailed her life once. She was not going to do it again.”

Ferrari added that Ms Rodriguez “texted her boyfriend throughout the birth, ultimately telling him – it’s dead.

“Then the two of them discussed via text getting rid of it. Smashing it up, so it didn’t look like a body. Burning it. Meeting up to bury it.”

Prosecutors added Ms Rodriguez included the acronym “LOL” in her text messages and said she’d “dig a hole” in which to dispose of the baby’s body.

Related: Seven dead babies discovered in an ordinary suburban home.

District Attorney Cy Vance said he was sure justice would be served in the distressing case.

“There is perhaps no victim more defenseless than a newborn child,” he said.

“I am confident that the experienced homicide and child abuse prosecutors in my office will see that justice is served in this tragic case.”

Ms Rodriguez is without bail, and faces 15 years to life in prison if convicted.

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