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MD Coast Dispatch

Vilified Cabbie Helps Saves Man's Life

By Shawn J. Soper, News Editor
Originally published March 21, 2008

OCEAN CITY- With an ironic twist of fate, an Ocean City woman vilified last summer by the local and national media when she was charged with murder in the death of her unborn fetuses was a hero of sorts this week when she helped save the life of an elderly man who collapsed in a West Ocean City store.

Christy Lynn Freeman found herself in the right place at the right time this week when she helped revive and later comforted an elderly man who collapsed from an apparent heart attack while in the checkout line at the Staples store in West Ocean City. According to witnesses, around noon on Tuesday, an elderly man waiting at the copy center in the store keeled over and hit the floor and Freeman, who was near the victim in line, first performed basic CPR techniques on him and helped keep him lucid until paramedics arrived.

According to Staples copy center manager Natosha Collick, who was on the scene on Tuesday, the elderly man collapsed and hit his head on the floor after what appeared to be a heart attack or stroke. Collick said Freeman immediately began basic CPR techniques on the victim, perhaps saving his life.

It appeared that he had a stroke, she said. He was unconscious for a minute or so, but she [Freeman] helped revive him. She said she had taken a CPR course and it looked like she knew what she was doing. She checked his vital signs after he was revived and she did a very good job.

After 911 was called, Freeman stayed with the victim and continued to monitor his condition while waiting for paramedics to arrive, according to Collick.

She held his hand and kept him alert, asking him silly questions he should know the answer to, she said. He hit his head on the floor when he fell and she sat there holding his head in her lap until the paramedics got there. She really had no concern for herself during the whole thing.

As most will remember, Freeman was arrested late last July when police found the remains of her stillborn infant wrapped in towels under a vanity in the bathroom of her Ocean City residence. The case against Freeman escalated when the remains of two more fetuses were discovered at the bottom of a trunk in her bedroom and fourth was found in a recreational vehicle parked in the driveway.

The strange case created a national media circus in the resort at the height of the summer tourist season. Most of the major networks set up shop in and around Freemans residence on otherwise quiet Sunset Drive in Ocean City as the story unfolded.

Freeman was initially charged with murder in the death of the first fetus discovered, but prosecutors later dropped those charges and proceeded with a murder charge in the death of one of the fetuses found in the trunk believed to be a twin born sometime in 2004.

During a jailhouse interview following the discovery of her most recent fetus on July 27, Freeman told an OCPD detective one the fetuses found in the trunk was the first of two twins she delivered in 2004, which she allowed to die in the toilet. The admission led state prosecutors to drop the charges against her for the death of her most recent child in late July and apply first-degree murder charges against her for the death of her full-term or near full-term infant in 2004. Freeman later said she made the confession under duress out of concern for her longtime boyfriend Ray Godman and the couples four grown children.

In August, States Attorney Joel Todd presented the preliminary evidence to a Worcester County grand jury, but any indictment was put on hold pending the final report from the state medical examiners office. In September, the medical examiner said the cause of death of three of the fetuses was undetermined and the manner of death was ruled not applicable, which essentially meant they were not viable fetuses at the time of their death.

Basically, the medical examiners report said there was no proof of life with any of the fetal remains examined, and without proof of life, there could be no prosecution for homicide. Todd then recommended the grand jury not indict Freeman based on the findings of the medical examiner. In September, all charges against Freeman were dropped and she was released from jail after several weeks had passed since the initial discovery back in late July.

Seven months later, life goes on for Freeman and her family. Their Classic Taxi business, which took a big hit during the weeks and months after the case began to unfold late last July, now goes by the name Flashback Taxi, but the unmistakable cars are still seen prominently on the streets in and around the resort with Freeman often seen behind the wheel.