The case of a woman who showed up at a hospital with a newborn baby that was not hers took a macabre twist yesterday, when police found a body in the woman's Wilkinsburg apartment.

Police were investigating the possibility that the dead woman was the mother of the infant boy who was brought to West Penn Hospital on Wednesday by Andrea Curry-Demus, 38, of Wilkinsburg.

Ms. Curry-Demus, who initially claimed she had given birth to the child, was in the Allegheny County Jail yesterday facing child endangerment charges.

Meanwhile, news reporters who visited her apartment building at 495 Ella St. notified police of a foul smell and swarms of flies in the apartment's windows.

When Wilkinsburg police arrived, they found the body of a black woman in the bedroom, face down and bound at the wrists with duct tape, Police Chief Ophelia Coleman said.

County Medical Examiner Karl Williams said the victim had been dead for at least 24 hours.

"There was some blood around the scene where she was, and that's all we know at this point," he said. He said it was not yet known whether the victim had been pregnant, and her identity had not been confirmed.

As investigators entered the apartment last night, a crowd of 40 to 50 people, many acquainted with Ms. Curry-Demus, gathered outside. Many had believed Ms. Curry-Demus' claim that she had been pregnant.

"This is all too much mystery for me. I can't even believe somebody could deceive you that long," said close friend and neighbor Ivee Blunt.

Also at the scene were relatives of two missing pregnant women, wondering if their loved one was the victim.

After her initial story was discredited, Ms. Curry-Demus told police that she had paid $1,000 to a woman named "Tina" for her infant boy, who still had his umbilical cord attached.

Ms. Curry-Demus recently married Raymond Demus Jr., according to neighbors on Ella Street. She had no children, they said.

She and her husband have extensive criminal histories and both were in the county jail yesterday. Ms. Curry-Demus has tried to kidnap babies in the past. Mr. Demus is facing rape charges. He is accused of molesting the daughter of his former girlfriend.

In late June, Ms. Curry-Demus' mother hosted a baby shower at her Ella Street home. Dozens of neighbors and friends attended, giving Ms. Curry-Demus baby clothes and other gifts.

She later told police she had a miscarriage around the same time and she "flushed it" at her nearby apartment, according to a criminal complaint.

Worried about upsetting her mother, Ms. Curry-Demus approached a pregnant woman named Tina about purchasing her unborn child. She gave her $500, clothes and personal items, the complaint said.

A few weeks later, Ms. Curry-Demus gave Tina another $500.

On Wednesday, the woman came to Ms. Curry-Demus' apartment with her newborn baby wrapped in a towel, the complaint said. Ms. Curry-Demus then called for medical assistance around 10:45 a.m., and she told the paramedics who arrived that she was the mother.

They took her and the baby to West Penn Hospital in Bloomfield. Doctors there examined Ms. Curry-Demus and determined she wasn't the newborn's mother. Officials at the hospital called police around 1 p.m. on Thursday. City detectives then turned the investigation over to Wilkinsburg police.

In 1990, Ms. Curry-Demus pleaded guilty to aggravated assault after stabbing a Wilkinsburg woman in an alleged plot to steal her infant.

One day after she stabbed the woman, Ms. Curry abducted a different 3-week-old baby from her room in Children's Hospital. A few hours later police found Ms. Curry at her home with the child, who was fine.

In 2004 and 2006, Ms. Curry pleaded guilty to retail theft charges.

Her husband, Mr. Demus, 40, has a history of arrests that includes charges for firearms violations, assault, arson and drugs.

Last month, he was arrested and accused of routinely molesting a girl in North Braddock from 1997 to 2003, starting when she was in kindergarten, according to a criminal complaint.

In March, the girl told an Allegheny County police detective that Mr. Demus would often abuse her in her mother's bedroom while he watched pornographic videos, the complaint said.

Now 15, the girl recently told her mother, Mr. Demus' former girlfriend, about the alleged abuse.

On June 25, Mr. Demus was held for trial on 10 charges, including two counts of rape, two counts of statutory sexual assault and one count of corruption of minors.

"Neither she nor her husband should be allowed back in this area," Shatera Jackson, 22, who lives on Ella Street with her two young children, said yesterday afternoon as she and three other women sat across from Ms. Curry-Demus' mother's house.

All had attended the June baby shower. They said the woman's mother had left the decorations up until Wednesday. But yesterday, a streamer and the outline of a pair of baby feet hanging from a wooden post on the house's front porch were all that remained.