It had all the appearance of a fairly normal pregnancy, with the expectant mother experiencing mood swings and depression as the months wore on.
But other than that 39-year-old Michelle Bica just got on with it, preparing a nursery and holding a baby shower, a ritual in which women friends bring round armfuls of presents.
And when Mikey (8lb 6oz) was born Mrs Bica's husband Thomas, a prison officer, started handing out cigars.
The couple did draw the line, though, when a neighbour suggested putting up a banner saying "It's A Boy". This was out of respect for Jonathan Andrews who lived a few blocks away in Ravenna, Ohio and whose pregnant wife Theresa had disappeared a week before.
Twenty-three-year-old Mrs Andrews had not gone far: Michelle Bica had shot her dead, removed the baby from her womb in a crude Caesarian section and buried the mother's body in the loose-earth floor of the Bica garage.
Police were led to Mrs Bica by mobile phone calls she had made to the Andrews home and when officers returned to question her a second time they heard a gunshot and found her dead in a bedroom. DNA tests showed yesterday that Mikey - whom his real parents had intended to call Remington - was the Andrews couple's baby.
Mr Roger Marcial, the coroner who performed an autopsy on Mrs Andrews's body, said: "She did not suffer long and the baby was cut out within minutes after she was killed."
Mrs Bica had appeared to put on weight over nine months and tricked everyone, including apparently her husband, who has passed a lie-detector test. They met six years ago when she was in jail serving a sentence for receiving stolen property.
"She went through all the motions of a pregnant person, even when no-one was around," according to a neighbour in the town of 13,000 about 30 miles from Cleveland. "Tom would come over and ask what he should do because Michelle was moody or depressed. I would just explain to him that's what happens during a pregnancy."
A load of gravel arrived at the Bica home not long after the baby and the new "mother" said she would spread it on the garage floor herself.
"Her husband wanted to help but she insisted on doing it herself," said Tammy Reaser, another neighbour. "She not only fooled her husband, she fooled a lot of people. He was so happy to be a father that whatever explanation she offered was good enough for him. She ruled the household."
Mr Nicholas Phillips, an attorney for Mr Andrews, said: "He's a long way from facing reality. It's such a difficult, unique situation when you're enjoying your new-born son and mourning the loss of your wife."
Thirteen years ago in Albuquerque Darci Pierce killed a 23-year-old mother-to-be and cut her baby from the womb with a car key. Then Jacqueline Williams and two men killed her cousin in Chicago in 1995 and removed the foetus. Both babies survived.