On July 13, 1997, a man called a Las Vegas hospital requesting aid. Saying his girlfriend had just given birth in a hotel room, he asked for an ambulance. When the receptionist began asking questions, the caller abruptly hung up.

Approximately an hour later, the man called 911 and told the same story. He again requested an ambulance but insisted that they not involve the police. When he was asked to provide more information, he again hung up.

Suspicious, the 911 dispatcher contacted authorities and within five minutes, a police officer and an ambulance arrived at the Lady Luck Hotel. When the personnel entered the room, they found a man and woman lying on a bed. Both were calm.

The couple were twenty-nine-year-old Kevin Woo and his twenty-three-year-old girlfriend Kristine Westin. They claimed the baby had been born dead while Westin was relieving herself.

The responders were shocked by the couple’s claim and were abhorred by what they found. In the bathroom, the minutes-old infant, with the placenta and umbilical cord still attached, lay face down in the toilet.

Investigators were suspicious and it was soon confirmed an egregious sin had been committed in Sin City.

Kevin Woo And Kristine Westin

Kevin Woo and Kristine Westin were drug addicts. To finance their habits, the couple shoplifted expensive merchandise from department stores to pawn or sell. Each had previously served time in prison for theft; at the time they arrived in Las Vegas, they were wanted on shoplifting and burglary charges. As repeat offenders, they were looking at significant jail time.

Three days prior to the baby’s birth, Westin and Woo arrived in Sin City and were up to their old tricks. They are believed to have stolen money from several retail stores before spending the next three days doing their standard partying, drinking, and drugs. It was business as usual, until the premature birth of their child, a boy.

Drug-Addicted Couple

Woo followed in his car as Westin was transported to the hospital. As he was questioned by police there, Woo grew nervous and excused himself, saying, ironically, he needed to use the bathroom. He never returned.

When questioning Westin, police were struck by her calm demeanor. The woman who had just given birth repeatedly inquired about her belongings in the hotel room, but made no inquiries of her deceased son and appeared to have no remorse over his death.

With the cause of the baby’s death still undetermined, investigators had no grounds to arrest Westin. Because she was fine physically, the hospital had no medical reason to detain her. That evening, she checked herself out.

Westin and Woo then hastily left Las Vegas.

The Couple Disappears

Clark County pathologist Dr. Sheldon Green determined the three-pound, two-month premature male infant had died of asphyxiation. Air in his lungs and stomach meant he had been born alive. Dr. Green wrote; “An effort to breathe, at least a gasp, had to have taken place.” In addition, “He [the baby] had to have been outside of the mother to get air.”

In addition, cocaine and a cocaine by-product were found in the baby’s bloodstream, meaning Westin had ingested the drug within twenty-four hours of the infant’s birth. The quantity of crack she had in her system and the frequency of her drug use could not be determined, nor could it be ascertained whether the drugs caused the premature birth. It was, however, determined that forty minutes had elapsed from the time the baby was born until Woo called 911.

Dr. Green said the baby could have lived had he been removed from the toilet water immediately or within a few seconds. He concluded his report by stating “By allowing it to stay in the water without any obvious effort to resuscitate it places this in the non-accidental area and is therefore homicidal.”

The Baby’s Death Is Ruled A Murder

When Kevin Woo and Kristine Westin arrived in Las Vegas, they were minor league crooks sought on shoplifting charges. The couple’s sins were far more serious by the time they fled Sin City, now charged with carjacking, child abuse, and, potentially, murder.

Two days after the charges were filed, Woo and Westin are believed to have stolen a pickup in Henderson, twenty-five miles southeast of downtown Las Vegas. It was found abandoned two-hundred-seventy-five miles away in Los Angeles three days later.

Warrants Issued For Woo And Westin 

For nearly six years, Kevin Woo and Kristine Westin eluded detection before their old habits led to their downfall.

In March 2003, Westin was arrested for shoplifting at an REI (Recreational Equipment, Inc.) store in Lynwood, Washington, a Seattle suburb fifteen miles north of the city.

Westin Is Apprehended . . .

The police  tracked Woo to the Extended Stay America Hotel where the fugitive couple were living.  When police launched tear gas into the room after a thirty-hour stand-off, Woo put a bullet in his head.

. . . While Woo Weasels Out

In her nearly six years on the run, investigators found that Kristine Westin had been arrested at least twice in California and Washington on shoplifting and burglary charges. Each time, she produced false identification and was released before authorities learned her true identity. One of the aliases she had used was Kari Lynn Meeker.

Westin pled guilty to felony child abuse and involuntary manslaughter. She was sentenced to twenty-four years in prison.

Westin Is Sentenced

In 2009, Kristine Westin was released for good behavior after serving six-and-a-half years and undergoing treatment for drug addiction.

Sentence Served

Westin said she had planned to name the baby Kyle. The Las Vegas Chapter of the Knights of Columbus bestowed him that name and gave him a proper burial.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/149816286/kyle-westin

The Baby Is Named And Buried 

SOURCES:

• Las Vegas Review Journal
• Las Vegas Sun
• Reno-Gazette Journal
• Seattle Times
• Unsolved Mysteries