GRAND JUNCTION — An Alaska woman accused of murdering her newborn son in Grand Junction is fighting her return to Colorado.

Morgan Hite, 22, of Wasilla, Alaska, refused to waive extradition at a court hearing Wednesday. A judge ordered her held without bond at the Mat-Su Pretrial Facility in Palmer. Hite returns to court there June 6.

District Attorney Pete Hautzinger said his office will pursue a governor’s warrant to force her return, a process which could drag out months.

“It could be mid-to-late summer before she’s back here,” Hautzinger said.

According to allegations in an arrest warrant affidavit, Hite delivered a baby boy and abandoned the child in a tote bag, which stayed in a closet at a Grand Junction home nearly two months before it was found by Hite’s parents on April 29.

Hite claimed her infant boy died in utero while visiting her father and stepmother in Grand Junction.

Hite was arrested Tuesday in Alaska on a Grand Junction police warrant for first-degree murder and child abuse resulting in death.

Chief Deputy Mesa County Coroner Dr. Robert Kurtzman concluded the baby was born alive and ruled the death as homicide, according to the affidavit.

Reached for comment on the case, Kurtzman declined to say how he determined the child — decomposed over months — was born alive.

“These are complex cases which require careful examination in correlation with the circumstances,” Kurtzman said Wednesday.

He declined to identify a cause of death.

According to the affidavit, Morgan Hite is daughter of Chris Hite and the stepdaughter of Stacy Hite, who live at 868 Grand Vista Way.

The parents called 911 the morning of April 29 after finding a plastic tote bag, located in a closet in a northwest corner spare bedroom of the home.

Stacy Hite found plastic bags inside the tote.

“She then opened the plastic bags to find a decaying corpse of an infant and bloody green towel,” the affidavit said.

Morgan Hite and her 4-year-old daughter had been visiting the Hites from Feb. 24 to April 3. The mother and child used a spare bedroom.

Chris and Stacy Hite told detectives that Morgan told them she’d given birth on Feb. 18 in Alaska and put the child up for adoption.

Despite the claim, the parents believed Morgan looked about “six months pregnant” when she arrived. Morgan Hite complained she was bleeding heavily and cramping soon after arriving in Grand Junction.

Morgan left the home the morning of Feb. 25 when a maid arrived to clean. She went to a neighbor’s house, where authorities believe she delivered her infant boy.

That night, she went shopping with Stacy Hite, the affidavit said.

“Upon arriving home, Stacy Hite found blood on the seat of their 2006 black Dodge Charger, where Morgan had been sitting.”

Interviewed by Grand Junction detectives in Alaska on May 2, Morgan said she knew two men who may have been the child’s father, but she knew she couldn’t afford a second child and wasn’t comfortable in her relationship with her current boyfriend.

She said she tried to have an abortion in Alaska.

She went to the Women’s Health Clinic in Anchorage, where she was refused. An ultrasound test showed she was 15 1/2 weeks along.

“Due to their requirement that an abortion is performed under 14 weeks in Alaska, the clinic told Morgan they were unable to perform the abortion,” the affidavit said.

She thought the child was conceived in May 2007.

“Morgan indicated she decided to keep the pregnancy hidden as she was going to give the child up for adoption and didn’t want anybody to know.”

She said she didn’t seek medical attention or take prenatal vitamins during the pregnancy.

Morgan said she awoke early Feb. 25 at the Hite home in Grand Junction experiencing contractions and discharge associated with a final month of pregnancy.

When Stacy Hite left with a neighbor to work out that morning, Morgan Hite said she went to the neighbor’s home with her 4-year-old daughter.

She said she went into labor in the bathtub.

The baby “wasn’t moving” during the delivery, she said.

“She indicated the eyes were not open and the baby was not breathing or moving as it did not make any grunting noises and no crying,” the affidavit said.

She said she didn’t do anything to stimulate the child, check its pulse, or clear the baby’s mouth or nose. She didn’t tell anyone — Stacy Hite and the neighbor had returned home from their workout.

“Morgan indicated that though she knew her mother had arrived, she did not seek assistance as she had already told a big lie and there was no turning back,” the affidavit said.

When Stacy Hite knocked on the bathroom door, Morgan said she was bleeding and having cramps and wanted to take a bath before returning to the Hite home.

Morgan said Stacy brought over a change of clothes and plastic trash bag and left the items outside the bathroom.

“She rinsed out the tub and subsequently walked across the street to the Hite residence carrying the two plastic trash bags but is unaware if anyone saw her walking across the street carrying the items,” the affidavit said.

At the Hite home, Morgan said she retrieved a rubber tote that held satellite TV equipment, removed the gear and placed the baby inside.

She placed the tote in a closet in her bedroom.

“She never opened the tote again,” the affidavit said.

She said she took another shower and continued her day and the visit, which later included a snowboarding trip and trip to Colorado Springs for hockey games. Morgan Hite and her daughter left Grand Junction on April 3.

She told detectives she felt leaving the body in the tote bag was preferable to dumping it in a trash can.

“Morgan indicated that there is no excuse for what she did but everything started snowballing and she felt like she couldn’t turn back.”

Nate Pokryfiki, Hite’s boyfriend and the father of her daughter, told police she initially denied being pregnant but later admitted it, saying she had an abortion.

The father of the slain infant, Ryan Pankratz, told detectives he received a text message from Morgan in December 2007 saying the child was his but she had an abortion in Denver.

Hite’s limited criminal past was in Mesa County: She was issued a summons in August 2006 for allegedly stealing checks totaling $250 from a roommate, then forging the roommate’s signature. Memo lines on the checks say they were written for “late fees” and “Morgan’s rent.”

Court records state the case was dropped in November 2006 for failure to prosecute.

Her arrest affidavit, however, says an arrest warrant related to the case is still active.

Hite’s profile on the Web site MySpace begins with the headline, “Momma.”

Reach Paul Shockley at pshockley@gjfreepress.com