Thirty-year-old Daisy Link made international news last year when she revealed that she and fellow inmate Joan DePaz had managed to conceive a child using only an air vent and some improvised tools. The bizarre story of how it happened quickly spread across social media, earning her a mix of disbelief and fascination.
Both inmates were held at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center in Miami-Dade County. According to reports, the two developed a close friendship while communicating through the facility’s ventilation system, spending countless hours speaking to one another from their separate cells.
But the same woman once dubbed the ‘miracle mom’ is now facing a grim outcome. She has been convicted of second-degree murder for the 2022 shooting death of her longtime partner, Pedro Jimenez — a case that has haunted her for years.
This week, a South Florida jury deliberated for less than two hours before returning a guilty verdict, closing one of the state’s most widely discussed criminal trials of the year.
They argued that she had been beaten repeatedly and lived in constant fear in the days before the shooting. During her testimony, she said: “That’s the father of my kids…It’s not like I didn’t love him, I did.”
Still, jurors sided with prosecutors. One juror later told reporters, as quoted by the New York Post: “If he’s running away and she shot him in the back, doesn’t seem much like self-defense if he’s running away.”
The case had already drawn national attention when Link gave birth to a baby girl on June 19, 2024, while still in custody. She said she managed to inseminate herself using semen that DePaz had passed through the vent in a plastic wrapper, using yeast infection applicators as makeshift medical tools.
Dr. Fernando Akerman, medical director of the Fertility Center of Miami, commented that the pregnancy was ‘absolutely a case that is exceedingly unusual,’ estimating that the odds of success were ‘less than five percent.’ Even in controlled medical environments, such a scenario would be nearly impossible.
Her sister, Crystal Barretto, spoke to CBS News following the verdict, expressing hope that the judge will consider the difficult circumstances that led to the tragedy and the time Daisy has already spent behind bars. She said: “I hope the judge takes into consideration all the evidence that was presented, the past domestic violence, history against Pedro and Daisy and the time she’s already served.”
“And also taken into consideration, her children and the new baby that was just born.”
