GOLDSBORO — Toys were still strewn around the yard at Kimberly Long's house Thursday. Neighbors say they belong to her 2-year-old daughter, but Long's second child will never play with a doll or a toy car.

Deputies say the 20-year-old Wayne County woman killed her newborn boy after keeping her pregnancy secret for nine months. They also say Long had help covering her tracks.

"She came over and used the phone the other night, and I had seen her several times, but I didn't know she had been pregnant," says Tanya Edwards, Long's neighbor.

Deputies say the boy's birth and death apparently happened in a public restroom at Herman Park in Goldsboro. Long is accused of killing the child by cutting off his airway.

"My opinion of this is I feel this is a shame," said Wayne County Sheriff Carey Winders. "It's a true tragedy."

Eight days later her brother, Glyn Long, and her boyfriend, Chad Sutton, allegedly buried the baby off Rayner Mill Road near Grantham. Investigators found the body in a makeshift grave after an extensive search.

"It's touched all of us here. Personally, what really upsets me is many people out here who want to have children can't have children," Winders said. "And for someone out here to do such a thing--this is beyond me."

Long's mother, Alice, has also been charged. She supposedly knew about the apparent murder and burial, but did not tell law enforcement.

The family reportedly told investigators that the baby would have been too "inconvenient."

Crisis hotline operators say it is that type of hopelessness that they are in place to address.

"We are here to work with people who are in crisis, and we always have a professional therapist on call 24 hours a day," says Pat Faircloth, a mental health coordinator, "so when we get those calls, the therapist can get involved right away."

The 2-year-old child is in protective custody.

The suspect's family was not available for comment.