An Iowa woman and her father are each heading to prison for decades for murdering and discarding her newborn baby along a snowy road.

Megan K. Staude, 28, and Rodney Staude, 67, were both sentenced to half a century behind bars on Monday. Megan Staude pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in July, while her father entered a guilty plea to the same charge on Monday. Prosecutor Douglas Eichholz said the baby boy was “discarded in a ditch like trash” by the Staudes. He also noted that family members tried to help the expectant mother, but that fell on deaf ears.

“The saddest part about this is Megan knew the options that were available to her,” Eichholz told the court. “She knew about the Safe Haven law, but she didn’t take advantage of it. That’s what makes this case senseless.”

Megan Staude’s attorney said her client became “lost” after the 2018 death of her mother and did not have anyone to turn to for help. While her attorney said she accepted responsibility, Staude, in her statement to the judge, heaped blame on her father, saying he’s the one who killed and discarded the boy and she just went along with it.

Eicholz read aloud a victim impact statement from the boy’s father.

“I hope you get what you deserve,” the statement said. “I’m totally and emotionally broken for what you did to our son who was a baby. Who does that to an innocent child? Who does that to a baby?”

The Staudes must serve at least 70% — or 35 years — of the sentence before they are eligible for parole.

As Law&Crime previously reported, the investigation began on March 8, 2023, when the Norwalk Police Department received a call from someone concerned about the safety of a child. The next day, cops recovered the dead newborn along a snowy road in the 5300 block of Delaware Street in Warren County. Investigators determined Megan Staude gave birth in late February 2023, put the baby in a box and ignored the boy’s cries for two days.

The Staudes then allegedly put the infant in a trash bag — while he was still alive. Prosecutors say they discarded the trash bag in a ditch along the road.

Local CBS affiliate KCCI reported that Megan Staude’s co-workers were the ones who raised those concerns that day. They noticed that she was no longer pregnant and were suspicious, and at least one neighbor was shocked, but not surprised.

Megan Staude appears in court with attorney Jill Eimermann on April 24, 2023 (KCAU).

“Honestly, I was pretty appalled. Not really surprised though, just cause the vibe they gave,” Chris Hentschel reportedly told KCCI. “They were kinda weird.”

The report noted that the residence where Megan Staude gave birth was considered “unsafe to occupy.”

Investigators said Rodney Staude helped his daughter abandon the victim in a ditch, rather than bring the baby to a Safe Haven, as defined by Iowa law.

In a previous phone interview with Law&Crime, Norwalk Police Chief Greg Staples said that it has been a “difficult” and “emotional investigation” for all involved.

“Luckily justice is being served for the baby who didn’t have any say-so in what happened to him,” Staples said, crediting officers who “buckled down and solved a case of this magnitude so quickly.”

Staples said that a cadaver dog named Montana, with the search and rescue group Iowa SAR K9, found the baby covered in snow.

“Safe Haven laws are there for a reason,” Staples emphasized. “It is a shame that because the Safe Haven laws weren’t used in this case we have the death of a newborn and two people in jail charged with the most serious crime that there is.”

The police chief hoped that shining a light on this tragic case would ensure it wouldn’t happen again.

“If there’s one thing that’s good that comes out of this investigation it’s that someone pregnant out there will see this story and their baby will have a life to live unlike this baby,” Staples said.