Angelikque Sutton, who was nearly nine months pregnant, was found in a pool of blood on Friday afternoon at the alleged killer's home in the Bronx.

Ashleigh Wade allegedly strangled and stabbed Ms Sutton, also 22, several times in the neck and torso inside her Wakefield area apartment.

Police found blood splattered on the property's staircase, in a second-floor bathroom and on the door of a bedroom where the victim was found.

A placenta was found in the hallway near the bathroom and a knife was on the floor nearby.

The baby, who has reportedly been named Jenasis, survived and is being cared for at a hospital in the Bronx.

Wade, who had recently gotten back in touch with Ms Sutton, was taken into custody screaming that the infant was hers.

Investigators say that tests show the newborn was Ms Sutton's.

Wade is charged with murder, criminal possession of a weapon and committing an "abortional act" that caused a woman's death.

She had allegedly been pretending for some time that she was pregnant, posting pictures on Facebook of an ultrasound showing a foetus with the comment: "My lil dimpled cutie pie."

Her apparently unsuspecting boyfriend shared the sonogram image on his Facebook page with the comment, "can't wait to meet her".

Wade then joked: "u stole my picture".

The boyfriend had also posted pictures of baby clothes neatly folded in anticipation of the new arrival.

He discovered the truth when Wade called him to come home after the killing and he walked in on the bloody aftermath, say police.
Wade was taken away for a psychiatric evaluation.