Palm Coast Mother Indicted for Murder After Phone Searches Reveal Alleged Premeditation

Phone searches referencing Casey Anthony, perhaps the most recognized name in American true crime, are now at the center of the state's premeditation argument against Anne Mae Demegillo, a 20-year-old Palm Coast mother indicted on first-degree murder in the death of her newborn daughter.

A Flagler County grand jury returned a "true bill" on April 6, upgrading Demegillo's initial aggravated manslaughter charge to first-degree premeditated murder, the most serious homicide classification under Florida law. The grand jury also handed down counts of aggravated child abuse and failure to report a death with intent to conceal. Demegillo turned herself in following the indictment and is being held without bond.

A true bill signals that the grand jury found probable cause to bring the case to trial; it is not a finding of guilt. The upgrade from manslaughter to premeditated murder carries significant legal weight. Florida's first-degree murder statute requires the state to prove the killing was both intentional and planned in advance, a standard that demands far more than showing a reckless or negligent act.

The case dates to March 6, the date of both the infant's death and Demegillo's original arrest. The Flagler County Sheriff's Office Major Case Unit spent the following month building the upgraded case through digital forensics. Investigators say Demegillo's phone contained searches for "newborn premature babies," "Palm Coast OBGYN," and "foods to decrease fertility," as well as images linked to newborn deaths and the Casey Anthony case. Prosecutors contend that combination of queries forms a documented trail of premeditation.

Sheriff Rick Staly condemned what he described as the choice to allow a newborn to drown rather than intervene, and credited the investigative and digital forensics teams for following the leads that built the case.

The road ahead in circuit court will be shaped significantly by pretrial motion practice. Digital evidence, including the admissibility of phone search histories, has become an increasingly contested front in modern criminal prosecutions, and Demegillo's defense will almost certainly challenge how those queries are characterized and whether they can be presented to a jury as proof of intent. The county medical examiner's findings on cause and manner of death will form the other pillar of the state's case; in newborn fatality prosecutions, forensic pathology and timeline reconstruction carry substantial weight.

Demegillo faces arraignment and pre-trial scheduling in Flagler County Circuit Court. With no bond and first-degree murder on the indictment, the state now has to do what the grand jury did not: prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the death of a one-day-old infant was not a tragedy, but a plan.