‘BABY ANGEL’

Police Close In on Mother of Newborn Baby Found Dead in River

It’s been 12 years, but new DNA sleuthing techniques have identified a suspect.

Twelve years after a newborn baby girl was found dead in the Mississippi River with fractured skull, Minnesota police believe they have identified her mother. The child was nicknamed Baby Angel because two music box angels and an angel bell were tucked into the T-shirt she was wrapped in, the Star Tribune reports. The investigation into her death went cold until the Winona County Sheriff asked the nonprofit Firebird Forensics Group to analyze the child’s DNA. Using genetic genealogy to create a family tree, Firebird came up with the name of a possible mother—a 4o-year-old woman living in Winona. Police twice asked her to submit to a DNA test before she lawyered up. Authorities then tested trash from her house to get a possible match before filing for a search warrant; she provided a sample this week. “It’s one of those cases that really touches you,” Sheriff Ron Ganrude said Friday. “It's in your memory, and it's still there today.”