ELK RIVER, Minn.—Authorities in Sherburne County have announced that a woman who left her newborn baby in a box on the side of a Minnesota road 35 years ago will not be charged.
Sherburne County Attorney Kathleen Heaney closed the case earlier this month due to the expiration of the statute of limitations for filing charges, as stated in a news release by the Sherburne County Sheriff’s Office on Thursday.
The baby’s body was discovered on April 23, 1989, in Santiago Township by a passerby. However, at the time, investigators were unable to identify the newborn or her parents, leaving the case unresolved.
Last year, with new techniques and assistance from state and federal investigators, county authorities made another attempt to solve the case. Through a DNA match, they identified the mother, now 56 years old, who admitted to keeping her pregnancy and the birth a secret from her family. She explained that the baby, a girl, was not alive at birth, and in a state of panic, she did not know how to handle the situation.
An autopsy conducted in 1989 and a review conducted last year did not definitively determine whether the baby was born alive. However, two pathologists suggested that the child was likely stillborn, according to the sheriff’s office.
The county coroner’s office buried the baby in 1989, but records of the burial location have not been found by the sheriff’s office.
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