Investigation into death of baby found in Stearns County ditch closed after 44 years

A 44-year-old cold case investigation into the death of a baby has been closed by the Stearns County Sheriff's Office despite the likely discovery of the child's parents.

Baby Jane Doe was discovered on April 3, 1980, when officers responded to what is now 250th Street, west of County Road 136, in the city of St. Augusta.

She was located approximately five feet off the roadway. An autopsy concluded that Baby Jane Doe was a full-term, live-born female infant with "no anatomic cause of death."

In an update this week, the Stearns County Sheriff's Office says that DNA testing has identified the baby's parents to a high degree of likelihood.

However, no further action will be taken as they cannot prove either was responsible the child's death, with the mother already dead, and the father saying he had no knowledge of the child.

Baby Jane Doe was buried in Calvary Cemetery in St. Cloud on April 7, 1980, before her body was exhumed in 2018 to obtain her DNA profile. Nothing would be able to be obtained, and she was ultimately laid back to rest at Calvary Cemetery.

In 2019, the sheriff's office and BCA re-examined evidence collected from the original scene, including a Pepsi can, a Merit cigarette pack, a Pfeiffer beer can, and an Old Milwaukee beer car. However, officers obtained nothing valuable from the items.

The Hennepin County Medical Examiner's Office collected histology blocks in 2020 during the original autopsy review. The blocks contained portions of Baby Jane Doe's lung, heart, spleen, thymus, larynx, adrenal gland, aorta, and pancreas. A DNA profile was obtained from the profiling of Baby Jane Doe's spleen.

The sheriff's office contacted Parabon NanoLabs to assist in the investigation, and in 2021, the lab identified a possible lead to the baby's mother. A DNA sample was taken from the potential mother – a woman who had already died – and it was determined there was "strong evidence" that the deceased woman was the baby's mother.

The sheriff's office also located the potential father this year in May and June, with the help of Parabon NanoLabs, and was cooperative in the collection of his DNA, denying knowledge of the baby.

The results show that the genetics found in Baby Jane Doe are "670,000,000 times more likely to occur in a biological child for the adult female and adult male than in someone unrelated to these individuals."

The sheriff's office was not able to prove if a particular person killed the child, so the office has closed this case.