For more than three decades, answers surrounding the grisly death of a baby girl known to them simply as Baby Doe eluded Mississippi authorities. The infant’s body was discovered inside a garbage bag in the south-western Mississippi community of Picayune on 17 April 1992.
Authorities determined that someone had smothered Baby Doe and deemed her untimely death a homicide. Picayune police started to investigate, collecting evidence – some tying the infant to neighboring Louisiana, reportedly including local newspapers – but the case went cold.
Last week, however, it became clear that Baby Doe was never forgotten. Louisiana police announced that they had arrested Doe’s alleged killers – her parents – using genetic genealogy analysis of evidence collected after the baby’s body was found.
Officials said that Picayune police, with the aid of Mississippi’s investigations bureau, had reopened Baby Doe’s case. Using “advanced technology, DNA profiles and fingerprints were developed from the preserved evidence”, they said.
After pursuing these leads, they claimed to have identified Baby Doe’s parents as Andrew and Inga Johansen Carriere, both 50. They arrested the now-divorced couple on 9 March and 28 February, respectively.
“This breakthrough in the case is a testament to the advancements in forensic technology and the dedication of law enforcement agencies to bring justice to victims and their families,” the Louisiana state police said in a 9 March Facebook post.
While advancements in forensic science led police to Baby Doe’s alleged killers, traditional, gumshoe detective work spurred the investigation. According to the nola.com news website in New Orleans, just outside of which the Carrieres lived, Picayune police detective Rhonda Johnson happened upon a box of evidence labeled “Baby Doe” in 2021 while she was investigating a cold case.
Johnson inquired about the box, and an evidence clerk recalled to the detective that an infant was discovered in a trash bin on 15 April 1992, the newspaper said.
“I said, ‘I’m going to have to do that one next,’” Johnson recalled to the newspaper. The detective hunted for Baby Doe’s grave.
Johnson found the girl buried at a church in Picayune. Her tombstone was inscribed: “Heaven’s angel.”
Police didn’t have to exhume Baby Doe’s body, as the evidence in her death had been well preserved. Johnson and Mississippi bureau of investigations detective Christa Groom sent genetic evidence to Othram Labs based in Woodville, Texas.
The laboratory focuses on using crime scene DNA to identify victims and their attackers. In Baby Doe’s case, Othram made a DNA profile for the infant.
Genetic genealogists, in turn, used this profile to put Baby Doe within a family-tree and discover potential relatives, Othram’s chief development officer, Kristen Mittelman, told nola.com.
Othram analysts allegedly discovered Baby Doe’s grandparents in Louisiana. Police, in turn, found Baby Doe’s purported mother and father.
Inga Carriere was arrested in Avondale, which is across the Mississippi River from New Orleans and is about 60 miles from Picayune. Andrew Carriere was arrested in River Ridge, which is in a community just outside of – and on the same side of the river – as New Orleans.
Both were being held in a local jail in the New Orleans suburb of Gretna to await extradition to Mississippi.
Inga Carriere’s attorney, Paul Fleming, maintained that she was innocent of murder. “She believed at the time that the child was stillborn,” Fleming reportedly said. Andrew Carriere’s lawyers could not immediately be reached.
The investigators’ use of genetic genealogy to identify Baby Doe’s alleged parents comes amid an apparent increase in law enforcement using this technique to solve crimes. In one of the most famous examples, police in Sacramento, California, homed in on the Golden State Killer, Joseph James DeAngelo Jr, using genetic profiles available on genealogy websites.
The use of genetic genealogy in law enforcement has sparked controversy. Critics have questioned whether authorities should be able to use personal information – such as genetic information drawn from third parties – in their investigations due to privacy concerns.
It was not immediately clear how Othram was able to link DNA from Baby Doe to her alleged grandparents, including whether this information came from a third party. Othram did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
