'Baby Mary' cold case: Mother charged almost 40 years after newborn's body was found in New Jersey park on Christmas Eve 1984
MORRIS COUNTY, NEW JERSEY: A DNA discovery led to the "Baby Mary" cold case being solved after nearly 40 years, with the newborn's mother being accused of her daughter's death.
According to Morris County Prosecutor Robert Caroll, the newborn, known as Baby Mary by a police chaplain, was discovered by two young boys in an empty park in Mendham Township in New Jersey on Christmas Eve 1984.
She was placed in a plastic bag with the umbilical cord still attached, wrapped in a blanket. Caroll claimed that Mary was still alive when she was abandoned.
According to the medical examiner, the baby was only a day old when she died. Her death was deemed a homicide, as per the Daily Mail.
Baby Mary’s mother was 17 at the time the baby was abandoned
Caroll reportedly asserted that the baby's parents had been found and that an arrest had been made on Thursday, September 7.
The mother, who is now 57 and was 17 when the incident occurred, was taken into custody in South Carolina on April 24 and charged as a minor with manslaughter.
Caroll added that although she was not in detention, she was "being monitored."
Given that she was a minor when the baby died, the woman's name was withheld. According to Caroll, the identity of the father, who died in 2009 and was 19 at the time, was also discovered.
However, the father was not informed of the baby's birth and was not responsible for her death, according to the police, per CBS News.
View this post on Instagram
Investigators were able to locate the baby's mother and father by using modern technology, law enforcement measures spread over three states and conventional police work.
Caroll said that a combination of "new technology and old fashioned police work" led to their solution in the long-running cold case.
On April 24, a juvenile delinquency complaint was made against Mary's biological mother, although the announcement was recently made by the authorities.
She has been charged with manslaughter as part of the complaint. According to NBC4 New York, the incident would have been a second-degree offense if it had been done by an adult.
The baby's abandonment has not been linked to any specific reason or objective.
Baby Mary's death and abandonment is a 'tragic loss'
The FBI and many law enforcement agencies from New Jersey, Florida and South Carolina were all involved in the investigation.
Caroll stated that the "death and abandonment of this baby girl is a tragic loss and even after nearly 40 years, remains just as heartbreaking."
"Justice may not take the form the public has imagined all these years, but we believe with this juvenile delinquency complaint, justice is being served for Baby Mary. Nothing can right this terrible wrong," Caroll said.
Baby Mary was laid to rest at St Joseph's Church in Mendham Township.
Mendham Township Police Chief Ross Johnson stated, "Every Christmas Eve for the past 35 years members of our department and community have left their own families at noon to remember Baby Mary at a service by her grave, to ensure she is never forgotten."
View this post on Instagram
Safe Haven Infant Protection Act did not exist in 1984
Sheriff James Gannon said that although the Safe Haven Infant Protection Act did not exist in 1984. As it became a law in 2000, he said that new parents should be aware that "there is help available."
He said, "The legislation allows parents or their representatives to anonymously surrender a newborn baby at any hospital emergency room, police station, fire station, ambulance, first aid, or rescue squads that are staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week."
He added, "If the baby appears to be 30 days old or less, and free of any abuse or neglect, the baby will be accepted with no questions asked.”