The mother of an infant dubbed “Baby Jane Doe” after she froze to death when abandoned in the Maine snow in 1985 has been arrested after a DNA breakthrough cracked the decades-old cold case.
Thirty-seven years after Baby Jane’s tragic death, 58-year-old Lee Ann Daigle was arrested in Lowell, Massachusetts, Maine State Police announced in a statement this week.
Ms Daigle, who was identified as the child’s mother through DNA testing, is being held without bail and appeared in county court on Wednesday morning where she has plead not guilty to one count of murder.
“This case was the culmination of decades worth of investigative work from dozens of now retired and current detectives who never gave up finding answers and justice for Baby Jane Doe,” the press release from the department said.
On a brutally cold night in December 1985, a dog discovered the abandoned newborn’s remains inside a gravel pit in Frenchville, Maine, a small French-speaking town located on the other side of the Canadian border. The dog then carried the child’s corpse less than 700 feet to his owner’s home, according to authorities.
WGMA, a local news outlet who was in the town at the time of the incident, spoke with the owner of the dog, Armand Pelletier, who first saw the infant’s remains in 1985.
“I saw the baby and I couldn’t believe it at first, I thought it was just a little doll, rubber doll that my dog had brought back to the house but the more I saw it the more I thought it was real,” said Mr Pelletier in an interview with the news outlet. “After I realised it was a real baby, it’s when I saw the umbilical cord hanging from the baby.”
Police in the town were able to trace the dog’s path from where it had retrieved the child, and upon discovering the site they reportedly found blood and what appeared to be placenta, WGMA reported.
The cold case was headed up by Detective Jay Pelletier of the State Police Unsolved Homicide Unit, who recalled in an interview the intense media attention the case drew, noting how it was hard not to be touched by the case as a local resident himself.
“I knew the history of the case, also I knew the retirees that had worked on it before me and kept in close contact with them, so in conjunction with them, reading the reports and trying to determine who the mother was of Baby Jane Doe, this was one that was definitely workable for our unit,” said Mr Pelletier in an interview with WGMA.
Eventually, through the assistance of advancements in technology, the team was able to gain some traction in their leads, which eventually pointed them towards Ms Daigle.
“In collaboration with the Attorney General’s Office, Daigle was indicted by an Aroostook County Grand Jury on one count of murder and an arrest warrant was issued,” the police said, adding that the mother was arrested outside her home on 13 June without incident and was later taken to Maine where she is being held at the Aroostook County Jail in Houlton.
Ms Daigle’s next court appearance will be in Fort Kent District Court on 8 August.
