Text messages from a Granger woman’s cell phone will likely play a big role in her feticide and neglect trial.

In opening statements Monday, a deputy prosecuting attorney detailed for the jury Purvi Patel’s text messages exchanged with a friend before, during and after police say the then 32-year-old forced her body to have an abortion before putting her newborn in a dumpster.

Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Aimee Herring said Patel began texting her friend about her condition in April 2013 about an irregular menstrual cycle and cramping. The friend urged Patel to see a doctor, Herring said, but she did not.

The texts apparently continued through May and into June, when Herring said Patel took a pregnancy test that was positive.

On June 10, Patel text messaged her friend about ordering abortion pills from an “international pharmacy,” and when the friend asked Patel three more times to see a doctor, she replied, “I’d rather not even go to a doc. I just want to get this over with,” Herring said.

According to text messages, the pills arrived at Moe’s Southwest Grill in Mishawaka – a restaurant Patel’s family owns – in early July. But Patel waited to take those pills until July 10, continuing to provide a detailed account of her situation to her friend, Herring told the jury.

“BTW, these pills taste like sh**. If these pills don’t work…I’m gonna be mad,” the text messages allegedly said.

Then on July 13, Patel text messaged her friend, “Just lost the baby. I’m gonna clean up the bathroom and then go to Moe’s.”

That’s where investigators have said they ultimately found the baby, in a dumpster, wrapped in plastic bags.

“The evidence in this case is irrefutable that some pretty terrible things happened July 13 and 14 of 2013,” Herring said in opening statements. “A mother lost her child. What could be more terrible than that? Well the evidence will show that the loss of that child in this particular case was not due to any natural cause. In fact, the loss of that child’s life was the direct result of that mother, Purvi Patel’s actions.”

Herring went on to say Patel sought care for herself when she needed help, “while her baby lay dying.”

The state’s first witness was an emergency room doctor who treated Patel.

Dr. George Drew testified Patel was clotting and bleeding from her vaginal area and appeared to have an umbilical cord hanging out of that area.

At the time, Patel told him she wasn’t sure if she was pregnant or how long she’d been bleeding, Drew testified.

When asked about Patel’s demeanor in the ER, the doctor told jurors, “She had a very flat affect, was very limited in discussion with me and the nursing staff… just yes or no questions, seemed disengaged and was either playing or on her cell phone the entire time.”

An obstetrician on duty at the hospital that night, as well as two other labor and delivery nurses who treated Patel, gave similar testimony.

In cross examination with Patel’s lawyer, one of the nurses added women can sometimes “shut down” or act “emotionally removed” after a miscarriage.

A labor and delivery nurse who treated Patel said the woman’s condition without a baby in the ultrasound, “just didn't seem right.”

The nurses also testified about Patel’s reluctance to admit she’d delivered a baby. In fact, the obstetrician told jurors she wanted to call police but waited for a second opinion from another OB doctor she called to examine Patel.

They said she eventually admitted to wrapping the baby in plastic bags and putting it in a dumpster behind a Target store.

Herring told jurors they will hear testimony from a pathologist that performed that baby’s autopsy and found it was born alive and took a breath. The obstetrician that testified Monday said she estimated Patel to be between 28 and 30 weeks along when she delivered based on the size of her umbilical cord, placenta and uterus. 

But Patel’s lawyer – Jeff Sanford – told jurors he will bring another pathologist that has a different opinion.

He also questioned all four witnesses about whether they knew how much blood Patel had lost, alluding that might be why she was acting the way she was.

In opening statements, Sanford told jurors they’re going to see lots of pictures and hear lots of testimony that’s going to upset them, but said those things have nothing to do with the charges against Patel. He also said the state will not be able to prove its case by the time this is over.

Patel did not appear to make eye contact with jurors inside the courtroom, and outside the courtroom, she hid her entire face in a scarf and coat and walked behind one of her attorneys on her way to and from her trial.

Also Monday, the judge in the case dismissed a juror for “medical reasons.” That juror was apparently suffering from kidney stones and told the judge he felt bad about leaving but said he ultimately thought it would be best.

He was an alternate in the case but other jurors involved do not know that.

There is one more alternate in the case.

Testimony is scheduled to resume Tuesday morning. Jurors are expected to hear from another doctor who treated Patel in the hospital and ultimately went out with police to search for what he believed could have been a live baby in those dumpsters.

The state is also expected to show the jury pictures of the infant’s body, both in the dumpster and during its autopsy.

The trial is expected to last through the end of the week, potentially longer. The state has subpoenaed a total of 28 witnesses, but there's a possibility they might not all be called to testify.