The Suure-Lähtru infant murder is one of the most shocking crimes to shake Estonia in recent years and was also covered by "Pealtnägija." On August 25, 2025, the court ruling became final, finding Kairi Kuusemaa guilty of suffocating her newborn son.

On February 5, the Emergency Response Center received a call from the Kuusemaas' neighbors, reporting that their dog had brought a dead newborn into their yard.

"Hello! I have a problem — we have a big dog and it brought me a newborn boy, a baby. Dead," the neighbor said in the call, confirming it was not a doll.

"He's kind of curled up. He has a penis. There's an umbilical cord. His head is all wrinkled, like babies usually are. He's got darker hair, his arms are together like this, and we don't even have a cemetery nearby, so where could he have been taken from? Nobody has reported a baby stolen or missing," the shocked neighbor added.

The baby's mother, Kairi Kuusemaa, went to work at the family business the next morning as if nothing had happened. She learned of the discovery from her sister.

Police immediately began searching for the newborn's mother, assuming she might need medical care.

During the large-scale search, Kairi, who was living with her parents, left Estonia for London Fashion Week. She posted photos on social media, which caused confusion even within her family.

Her family later revealed that Kairi hadn't told them about the trip, something that angered her father.

"All this mess is going on here and you just leave. There's no point in doing something so irresponsible," he told "Pealtnägija" in March 2024.

Police later searched her parents' home, finding clothes stained with breast milk, a bandage and DNA on her dental braces that matched the dead infant.

Family chat transcripts show they had asked Kairi if she had been pregnant, but mostly treated the idea as a joke.

The family, who had lived with Kairi for years and even spent the evening of the birth together with her in the sauna house, could not believe the truth.

"When we were told the DNA test showed my sister was the mother, we thought — how is that possible? It's just so illogical, it doesn't fit in your head," her sister told "Pealtnägija" in March 2024.

Struggling to make sense of what had happened, the family also sought answers from Kairi herself, who at that point was still in England and suicidal.

Although London police visited her, she was not detained as a suspect. Estonian police kept in touch and tried to lure her back to Estonia, but she denied ever giving birth.

"If my DNA is 100 percent [a match] and I didn't give birth, then what's left to prove? I wasn't raped, I didn't give birth. Nobody supports me," she told police.

Family members also sent her money, but instead of returning, she traveled on from London to Morocco.

From there, she occasionally called home, describing what might happen next.

"I just came from court. I don't need a lawyer in Morocco. The day after tomorrow, they'll decide if I'll be extradited to Estonia or not. I handled it myself, don't hire me a lawyer in Morocco. On Wednesday they'll decide. If Morocco refuses extradition, then under Sharia law I'll face a murder charge for the child, and that means life imprisonment," Kairi said in a phone call to her sister.

"I'm just saying — don't be surprised. Be ready for anything I say because I've thought it all through. Let the baby be mine, my own. I'll name him Ken Kuusemaa, and if there really is proof, then no gynecologist can examine me anymore," she added.

To prove she had been pregnant, police reviewed security footage from the Riigikogu, which Kairi visited in January, as well as her shopping trips, where her purchases often included alcohol and she wore baggy clothes.

"Let's say the baby is mine, but I won't take the murder charge. Then we'll think it through. I want the whole country to feel sorry for me, to see how I've been cornered," Kairi said in another phone call to her sister.

The first hearing in the Suure-Lähtru infant case was held at Haapsalu courthouse.

"The charges state that Kairi Kuusemaa blocked the newborn's airways, causing respiratory failure, and also tore the umbilical cord from the placenta, causing bleeding. The newborn died as a result of respiratory failure and blood loss," said Eliisa Sommer, senior prosecutor at the Western District Prosecutor's Office.

"It has been an extremely difficult year. I deeply regret what happened with the child and what has been done to me since — my tragedy has just been turned into some kind of media show. My family and I have been humiliated," Kairi told the court.

"Both investigators and prosecutors exploited my psychological state to push me into confessing to something that never happened, something that was never done," she added.

The only time Kairi herself described the events of February 4 was during a forensic psychiatric evaluation after her return to Estonia.

"On the evening of February 4, Kairi planned to take a bath. She remembers the events afterward as 'foggy,' so she cannot specify the time or her state of mind. The next memory is of holding a newborn against her chest, limp and silent. She recalls cutting the umbilical cord with scissors from the bathroom but denies tearing it. The next memory is of being outside in the dark, probably at night. That memory is also 'foggy,' but she may have still been holding the baby. She has no memory of what happened next. When she learned the infant had been found dead, she couldn't connect it to herself, but she knew something was very wrong," the evaluation stated.

Kairi Kuusemaa was sentenced to three years and nine months in prison.

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