Taylor K. Blaha was born on April 21st, 1998. She grew up in Fort Dodge, Iowa, and graduated from the local high school. Going over her many Facebook profiles, 18 to be exact, it appeared that Taylor had a great love for animals. In particular, her calico colored guinea pig named Harley. Taylor Blaha and Brandon Toma became a couple.
They subsequently welcomed a son, David, in June of 2020. They appeared to have an on-again off-again relationship, but per social media became engaged in May of 2020. At some point, drugs became a part of the couple’s lives. On November 22nd, 2022, Webster County Law Enforcement Center received a call from Shannon Heley with the Iowa Department of Human Services.
It was roughly 2:47 in the afternoon, and Shannon had just met with Taylor Blaha at the Unity Point Trinity Regional Medical Center. Now, according to Taylor, she had just given birth to a baby girl in her apartment. Her fiance, Brandon Toma, had buried the little girl in an undisclosed location. Detective Amy Stringer with the Webster County Sheriff’s Office responded to the hospital and met with Shannon before conducting an interview with the young mother.
Taylor, who was 24 at the time of our story, told the detective that she first learned that she was pregnant in April of 2022. Her fianceé, 31-year-old Brandon Toma, was the father of the child, whom they named Caen Lee Blaha. At the time of our story, the couple’s son, David, was 2 years old. Taylor went on to explain that on November 16th, Caine was born in the bathroom of the apartment that the couple shared, located at 927 Central Avenue in Fort Dodge.
She stated that Brandon was in the bedroom when she gave birth, but once the baby was born, he came into the bathroom to help her. She shared that Kaine was born alive crying and moving her arms and legs. She said that she opened her eyes, revealing to Taylor that her eyes were brown. By all accounts, this was a completely healthy baby from the looks of it.
According to Taylor, Brandon provided her with crystal meth to help ease the pains associated with giving birth. She went on to inform Detective Stringer that she and Brandon had no intentions of keeping the baby and had plans to allow her sister to adopt her. However, the couple became nervous after the baby’s birth, believing that her cries would alert the neighbors to the situation and that law enforcement would be contacted.
Now, babies are born outside of the hospital all of the time, but Taylor and Brandon were worried that they would find out that Kaine was born with drugs in her system. Even though they did not intend to keep her, they were worried that the authorities would remove 2-year-old David from their home, and they couldn’t have that.
So Taylor went on to place her newborn inside of the bathtub and filled it about halfway with water. Next, she placed both of her hands on the baby’s chest, forcing her tiny body under the water, ultimately causing her death by drowning. On the same day that she was born, Caen Lee Blaha died at the hands of her parents. Afterwards, Brandon removed Caen from the bathtub and placed her inside a plastic storage container, wrapped her in multiple layers of trash bags, and then stuffed her inside a black backpack.
Taylor informed Detective Stringer that Brandon left apartment 221 in the early morning hours of November 17th with the backpack containing their dead daughter. He returned later with an empty backpack. The downtown Fort Dodge area has multiple surveillance video systems owned by the city, private individuals, and businesses.
Video from these systems were utilized in locating, tracking, and identifying Brandon and Taylor. Utilizing this technology, Brandon was observed leaving the Wakansa Apartments during the early morning hours of November 17th and returning approximately 20 minutes later. Brandon is first seen leaving the area of the apartments carrying a backpack that contains a rectangular-shaped object.
When he returns approximately 20 minutes later, the backpack is very clearly empty, not containing the same rectangular-shaped object. During his statements to law enforcement officers, Brandon admitted to leaving the apartment during the early morning hours of November 17th with Caen, who was dead, inside of a rectangular shaped basket wrapped in garbage bags and at least one towel inside of the black backpack.
Specifically, when shown photographs of himself leaving the area of the apartment and returning to the area of the apartment, Brandon admits that Caen was inside of the backpack and then later removed. When he returned 20 minutes later, he did confirm that she was discarded. According to Taylor, she and Brandon kept sections of Caen’s umbilical cord as some sort of keepsake to remember her by.
During the execution of a search warrant on November 23rd, an object consistent with an umbilical cord or remains of a human placenta was recovered from the top drawer of a dresser located inside of the apartment. Throughout the course of the investigation, multiple cellular devices were seized from Taylor and Brandon. Now, in addition to other key information, which we’ll get to in just a moment, each of their devices contains searches for information on how to force a woman to have a miscarriage.
During her interview, Taylor confirmed with Detective Stringer that she and Brandon did attempt to cause a miscarriage. However, they were unsuccessful. Communication between the couple as viewed through their cellular devices confirms conversations about where Brandon claims to have left Caen’s body. According to Taylor, which was further confirmed through text messages recovered between the couple, Brandon initially discarded Caen’s body in a wooded area near the Kenyon Road Bridge.
However, multiple searches of that location were unsuccessful. Then on December 5th, Brandon indicated to law enforcement that he would take them to the actual location where he left Caen’s body, a rural area north of the North Central Iowa regional landfill. Essentially, Brandon threw his newborn daughter away as if she was garbage.
From December 5th through December 6th, a full excavation of that area was completed. But unfortunately, it was unsuccessful. Kaine was nowhere to be found. Two people are in jail, arrested in connection to the death of a newborn baby in Fort Dodge. Brandon Toma and Taylor Blaha are facing first-degree murder charges.
Toma is also facing a charge of abuse of a corpse. Now, police got a call on November 22nd claiming a woman had given birth. The baby died and then the body was later moved somewhere else. Both are held on cash bond. Crimestoppers is still offering $1,500 reward for any information. Both Taylor Blaha and Branson Toma were charged with firstdegree homicide.
Brandon also caught a charge of abuse of a corpse due to the manner in which Kaen’s body was discarded. The couple is currently being held in the Webster County Jail on cash only bonds totaling over a million dollars each. A judge has approved a competency hearing for a Fort Dodge mother accused of killing her newborn daughter.
That hearing now scheduled for February 3rd for Taylor Blaha. The judge also has denied Blaha’s request for a new attorney, citing her refusal to meet with her courtappointed attorney on multiple occasions and her demand for a speedy trial. Now, she’s set to go on trial coming up February 28th. Blaha and Brandon Tama are charged with first-degree murder in the November 2022 death of their daughter.
Tama is also charged with abuse of a corpse. His trial is set for August 8th. The remains of that baby have not been found at this time. The Fort Dodge Police Department said it’s continuing to investigate all credible leads to find Kaen’s body. The police department encourages anyone with information to contact the police or submit a tip anonymously via Crimestoppers.
Captain Quinn says the department and other state agencies are still searching for the baby’s body and are using canines to help track down Caen. We have searched out a couple places outside of the city of the mids of Fort Dodge. We’ve also searched um we obviously searched the landfill which I know that was you know that was put out to a lot of people.
Um we’ve also searched a couple different wooded areas here in Fort Dodge. Obviously it was put out that you know we kind of were checking the area um from the location where this you know took place. But the Fort Dodge Police Department isn’t the only one out looking for Caen’s body. Leslie Mel is too.
This baby needs to be found so it could be put to peace and me and a friend of mine had some extra time and we needed some therapy. So, we thought we’d just start looking at places. Excel says although she doesn’t want to have to find an infant’s dead body, she feels for the community’s sake this needs to be solved. I know the grandparents, the mom’s family, and I feel really horrible for them, and I think the whole town needs closure.
As this story is still developing, we’ll keep an eye out for updates as they come along. As it stands currently, Brandon’s trial date is set for August 8th, 2023, and Taylor’s is set for September 12th, 2023. Capital punishment has been abolished in the state of Iowa since 1965.
So, the death penalty is totally off the table for these two. The most that they can get is life in prison without the possibility of parole. Let’s just hope that this summer the judge throws the book at both of them.
