SKOWHEGAN (AP) – A woman who collected welfare checks for a baby that didn’t exist has pleaded guilty to fraud and forgery, three months after her husband was sentenced to 20 months for his role in the scheme.

Lynn Zeigler, 24, will not be sentenced until the fall. Assistant Attorney General David Spencer said the delay will allow Zeigler to pay restitution to the couple she and her husband John Zeigler, 43, bilked out of $5,000 in medical expenses in an alleged adoption scam.

Separately, the couple obtained food stamps and general assistance by telling officials they were supporting an infant daughter named Rose.

Spencer said the state has determined that there was no baby, despite a birth certificate, photographs and baby items found at the Zeigler home in Fairfield.

Lynn Zeigler pleaded guilty in Somerset County Superior Court to two counts of theft by deception, false swearing and aggravated forgery. Her husband pleaded guilty in February to three counts of theft by deception.

“The welfare fraud charges were simple frauds, but the Zeiglers preying on the Henrys’ desire to have a child was much more sinister,” Spencer said.

Katherine and Stephen Henry, a military couple stationed in Okinawa, Japan, were contacted in January 2002 by Lynn Zeigler, who told the Henrys she was pregnant, not living with the child’s father and looking for someone to adopt her daughter, Spencer said.

The couple has since successfully adopted a child, he said.

The welfare fraud came to light when a woman the Zeiglers interviewed for a nanny position told authorities she thought no baby was living in the home and she feared the Zeiglers wanted to kidnap her child, Spencer said.

“They were trying to get their hands on a child,” he said. “We know they were attempting to sell babies over the Internet, and they were determined to obtain a child either by birth, though a friend, or abduction.”

Spencer said a search of the couple’s computer uncovered instructions on how to abduct a child and change its identity.

AP-ES-05-07-04 1237EDT