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Woman Allegedly Faked Birth, Invented Baby’s Shooting, And Fabricated Burial For ‘Attention’
Glenna Brook Pinkerton allegedly claimed her ex-boyfriend fatally shot her 1-year-old daughter in the head — but the child never existed.
A Tennessee woman who allegedly invented the birth, fatal shooting, and burial of a non-existent baby admitted to fabricating the tall tale for “attention,” police say.
Glenna Brook Pinkerton, 32, told detectives she had buried her 1-year-old daughter in a “shallow grave” in Nashville’s Two Rivers Park earlier this month after a deadly shooting involving a former boyfriend, according to an arrest affidavit obtained by Oxygen.com.
But police say it was all a hoax — and allege that Pinkerton concocted the plot and led authorities on a wild goose chase because she craved the spotlight.
On March 6, Pinkerton’s brother alerted authorities that his sister claimed to have buried her 1-year-old daughter in a park near the woman’s home on Cabin Hill Road in Nashville. Ronald Pinkerton insisted he was “unaware” that his sister had ever been pregnant or was a mother, the arrest affidavit stated.
The following day, Glenna Pinkerton confirmed the account with investigators, police say. She allegedly told police her ex-boyfriend Antonio Allen gunned the baby down and that she buried her 1-year-old daughter in a “shallow grave” in the neighborhood park. The 32-year-old disclosed she had been with the child’s father at the time of the shooting, according to the affidavit.
She later allegedly led detectives to a specific part of Two Rivers Park where her daughter was supposedly buried. Forensic investigators and cadaver dogs subsequently swarmed the area in search of the infant’s corpse; however, no human remains were recovered.
Pinkerton was arrested and charged with giving a false report to police.
It’s unclear exactly why the woman allegedly specifically singled out her ex-boyfriend in the shooting and burial of the non-existent child. The case’s police report doesn’t specify whether the supposed shooting of the fake child was accidental or intentional.
Nashville Metro Police Department declined to further comment on the case on Friday.
While criminal cases involving fake pregnancies and fabricated births are rare, they’re not unheard of.
Last year, Pennsylvania couple Geoffrey and Kaycee Lang allegedly used social media to fabricate the birth — and death — of a “sick” newborn boy in order to scam cash from friends, family, and complete strangers. The couple allegedly staged a snapshot of a child’s doll and shared it online to dupe unsuspecting GoFundMe donors into believing the baby was real.
Such sham pregnancies, however, aren’t always perpetrated by fraudsters looking for cash, and can also be carried out for more sinister reasons.
In 2017, Brooke Crews sliced open the stomach of a 22-year-old pregnant woman and stole her fetus in a sinister attempt to invent her own pregnancy to prevent her boyfriend from leaving her. The expecting mother, Savanna LaFontaine-Greywind, was killed in the freakish North Dakota attack. Her child miraculously survived the gruesome attack. Crews was sentenced to life in prison for the young woman's slaying in the botched fetal abduction.
Pinkerton’s case, though, is a true oddity some experts said.
“It’s not uncommon to see women faking pregnancies for a variety of different reasons and because of a variety of different psychological disorders but it is very uncommon, and I do not know of any cases, specifically, where somebody has fabricated both a birth and death of a child — especially a [possible] murder,” Dr. Elizabeth Jeglic, a New York-based clinical psychologist, told Oxygen.com. “These are quite bizarre allegations. This is not something we would see typically.”
Other medical experts agreed women who fake pregnancies do so for an abundance of psychological reasons, noting the act is often linked to attention-seeking behavior.
“In our society, pregnant women and new mothers have a special status,” Dr. Theresa Porter, a forensic psychologist and fetal abduction expert, told Oxygen.com. “While this varies in each woman’s case, our culture has the concept that pregnant women are supposed to be treated special. It isn’t abnormal that people wish to feel special. The problem comes when we don’t have other ways to find fulfillment in our lives, when we don’t have healthy ways to achieve it.”
Pinkerton has a lengthy criminal history in Davidson County, court records show.
The Nashville woman was charged with domestic assault causing bodily injury and resisting arrest following a family dispute only last month, according to an arrest affidavit by Oxygen.com.
On Feb. 15, Pinkerton allegedly began acting “belligerent” and “aggressively” toward her relatives, who reported her to law enforcement. In the presence of police, Pinkerton allegedly slapped her grandfather on the arm after he attempted to diffuse an argument between Pinkerton and her mother.
The Nashville woman was immediately arrested. She was accused of resisting police, attempting to kick out the rear window of a squad car, and hurling a number of death threats at arresting officers, who say they were forced to subdue her using hobble restraints.
“I’ll slit your f--king throat and kill you,” she allegedly told law enforcement, the affidavit stated. “I’ll slit your family’s throats and kill them, too.”
Pinkerton is scheduled to appear in court on those charges on April 29.
In 2012, the 32-year-old was also convicted on a trio of drug charges stemming from three separate cases. She spent six months in prison on one of those charges.
The following year, Pinkerton was found guilty on burglary charges for driving a getaway car connected to a residential robbery, according to another arrest affidavit obtained by Oxygen.com. A judge sentenced her to two years in the case.
She also pleaded guilty to a drunk driving charge in 2016.
Pinkerton is scheduled to appear in court to face charges related to misleading police in the case involving her non-existent child on April 17. She posted a $3,000 bond and has been released pending trial. It’s unclear if she’s secured legal counsel.
Oxygen.com was unable to reach Pinkerton by phone on Friday.
