A woman from Seattle, Washington, who allegedly abandoned her baby boy to die in a trash can in 1997 has been arrested after her DNA was matched to that left at the crime scene more than 23 years ago.
The now 50-year-old woman, whose name has not been disclosed, was 27 when her baby was born, according to The Seattle Times. The infant was discovered on November 20, 1997 in a trash can at a convenience store in Seattle’s Lake City neighborhood, and the King County Medical Examiner’s Office determined that he was born alive two days earlier. He was buried in January 1998 at Seattle’s Calvary Cemetery, his gravestone engraved with “Baby Boy Doe” and adorned with a teddy bear. (RELATED: Baby Boy Shot Dead In DC Drive-By)
A woman suspected of leaving Baby Boy Doe in the convenience store trash can was caught on the store’s surveillance cameras, according to the Seattle Police Department’s (SPD) blotter, but police were not able to identify her. DNA obtained from the scene was entered into the Washington State Patrol Crime Lab’s database, but it did not produce any matches at the time.
Detectives arrest suspect 23 years after deceased newborn found at Lake City gas station: https://t.co/rmEWNSUZTn
— Seattle Police Dept. (@SeattlePD) March 11, 2021
SPD detectives reopened the investigation into Baby Boy Doe’s death in 2018 when a public genealogy website found a woman who was a possible DNA match and fit the description of the woman in the convenience store’s security footage. Investigators obtained the woman’s DNA in an undercover operation and it resulted in a match with the state’s crime lab database, according to the blotter.
After interviewing the woman, SPD booked her in the King County Jail for investigation of homicide.