"They were perfect teens. Then she got pregnant, they got scared--and the baby ended up dead." That was the lead line in a Newsweek article about Amy Grossberg and Brian Peterson when their lives were no longer private.
Remember them? The N.J. teens whose shocking Baby Dead in Dumpster story made headlines around the world?
That was 1996.
Amy and Brian were high school sweethearts from Wyckoff, a wealthy N.J. suburb. During their freshman year in college, they got pregnant, kept it a secret, delivered the baby in a $52 dollar a night motel room in Delaware and tossed the body in a dumpster. They both said the baby was stillborn.
The secret got out because when Amy returned to her dorm at the University of Delaware, she got so sick she had to be hospitalized and doctors figured out pretty fast that she'd delivered a baby.
Amy Grossberg spent two-and-half years in prison. Brian Peterson spent two.
On the 10th Anniversary of the case, the Bergen Record ran a “Where are they now” sort of story.
"Brian Peterson left prison, married a Jersey girl and fled 1,200 miles away."
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"Amy Grossberg served her time and opened a business in Hackensack, custom-making greeting cards, including dainty announcements for other people's babies."
Another excerpt talks about their quiet lives in more detail:
“These days, Peterson lives quietly in Florida with his wife. With a degree from Montclair State University, he works in his stepfather's thriving video business. He has said that if he has children, he will urge them to talk through their problems with him, no matter how frightening or ugly those problems may be.”
Grossberg, meanwhile, returned to her parents' home, where, according to public records, she still lives. She, too, spoke to teens -- once for 9 straight periods at Pompton Lakes High School. The response was mixed from both students and parents, some of whom were upset by how staunchly she denied fault, claiming she was too ill during labor to know what was going on. "Some kids felt bad about what she would have to go through the rest of her life, but some were very upset with her and felt she didn't show
enough remorse," said Eileen Allan, a gym and health teacher.
A few years back, Grossberg started her own business, Just Because Invitations, custom-making cards using tiny Swarovski crystals. Her work is sold in high-end specialty shops in New York City, New Jersey and California, and she recently held a trunk show at Bloomingdale's in The Shops at Riverside in Hackensack.
If you google the two names, it’s clear Amy and Brian will probably always be associated with titles and terms like “Death in a Dumpster” and “Infanticide.”
A book was also written. The Story Of Amy Grossberg, Brian Peterson, The Pregnancy They Hid And The Baby They Killed
