Vermont State Police announced last week that they have identified the parents of a baby who was found dead on the side of the road in Northfield more than four decades ago.
The names of the parents will not be released because no criminal charges will be filed, state police said.
The baby, whom investigators call “Baby Doe,” was found on April 1, 1982, by a group of children waiting for a school bus on what is now known as Gillespie Road in Northfield.
The medical examiner found signs that the baby had an existing medical condition, but could not determine the cause or manner of death.
Investigators canvassed the area and collected evidence, but were unable to identify the baby or his parents until December 2021.
Parabon NanoLabs, a Virginia-based DNA technology company that was working with VSP, used blood and tissue samples from the baby from 42 years ago to develop a list of people who could be the baby’s parents.
Detectives discovered that two of the names on the list had ties to the Northfield area in 1982, and after collecting DNA samples from them, they confirmed that the two adults were the parents of the baby found in Northfield.
More from Vermont Public: VSP Major Crimes Unit investigates dozens of cold cases. It can be a challenge to move them forward
According to VSP, the father told investigators that in 1982 he had left Vermont and was unaware of the pregnancy.
The mother told detectives that at the time, she didn’t realize she was pregnant until she went into labor. The woman passed out while she was delivering the baby and woke up to find the baby was dead, state police said in a news release.
The woman took the baby to a wooded area to bury him, but dropped him and ran when she thought she heard voices, said Capt. Jeremy Hill, commander of the VSP Major Crimes Unit.
“It was obviously not the right thing to do,” Hill said in an interview. “But at that moment she was scared, she didn’t know what to do.”
Washington County State’s Attorney Michelle Donnelly, after reviewing statements from the baby’s parents and autopsy reports, determined that murder charges were not warranted.
“We still don’t have enough evidence to say this was an intentional act on the mother’s part,” Hill said.
The other potential charge, unauthorized disposal of a dead body, could not be filed because the statute of limitations for that charge is three years.
The Baby Doe case was one of more than 80 unsolved homicide and missing persons cases in Vermont. It is difficult to move forward with these cold cases, and police have only solved a few cold cases in the last decade.
Burlington police announced last year that they had solved the murder of Rita Curran 50 years ago, and in 2022 the Major Crimes Unit arrested a suspect in a 1989 double murder.
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