Sheriff To Announce New Information In “Baby Jane Doe” Death Case Nearly 4 Decades Old

[Sugar Cookie]

The Jackson County Sheriff’s Office says it will release new information this week on a child death mystery that has haunted the area for nearly 4 decades. “Baby Jane Doe” was an infant who was found floating in a river on December 5th 1982.

According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, “on December 5, 1982, the body of an unidentified child was found in thick brush along the Escatawpa River in Jackson County, MS. The body was that of a white female, approximately 18 months old. She had been deceased less than two days before being found. The child was approximately 2-5” tall and weighed around 25 pounds. Her eye color was indecipherable but was possibly brown or blue. Her hair color was strawberry blonde. The child was found wearing a pink and white checkered “Cradle Togs” dress or shirt and a disposable diaper. She had 12 teeth and appeared to have been well-nourished and cared for. Witnesses recall seeing a young adult female, carrying a baby walking along the Interstate a few nights prior to when her body was found. Authorities believe the baby seen by witnesses could be this unidentified child. The adult female has never been located or identified. The image above is a facial reconstruction completed by a NCMEC Forensic Artist and depicts what the child may have looked like in life.”

“Baby Jane Doe” in nearly 4-decade old death case identified

The Jackson County Sheriff’s Office says it will release new information this week on a child death mystery that has haunted the area for nearly 4 decades. “Baby Jane Doe” was an …

www.wkrg.com

 

[Sugar Cookie]

The Jackson County Sheriff's Office has released the identity of the victim in a Baby Jane Doe cold case.

In December 1982, a toddler was found dead under Interstate 10 on the banks of the Escatawpa River. She has been identified as Alisha Ann Heinrich.

Officials say her mother, Gwendolyn, is also missing. Officials say they have a suspect in mind.

According to investigators, drivers reported seeing a woman walking on the side of I-10 and carrying a baby two nights before the unidentified child's body was found back in 1982.

"They were walking on the side of the road and several people offered her a ride she refused and we’re assuming that’s the mother of the baby that was found because no one has ever found out who that was and nobody has reported a child missing or the woman,” Jackson County Sheriff’s Department Captain Chris Stratton said in a 2017 WXXV interview with Shelby Myers.

Officials identify Baby Jane Doe found dead in 1982; suspect is deceased

PASCAGOULA, Miss. (WALA) -- The Jackson County Sheriff's Office has released the identity of the victim in a Baby Jane Doe cold case.

www.fox10tv.com

 

[Satanica]

Wow, so incredible that they can be so accurate with these forensic reconstructions.

 

[Sugar Cookie]

I think the mother is dead @Satanica

 

[LFODBiker]

Hey @Sugar Cookie -

The link got pinched off at the end (it's missing the rest of the address).
As you have it now, it gets 404'd.

 

[Sugar Cookie]

 

[Sejanus]

Detective Science gets another one solved!

 

[LatiDaahh]

Officials identify Baby Jane Doe found dead in 1982; suspect is deceased

PASCAGOULA, Miss. (WALA) -- The Jackson County Sheriff's Office has released the identity of the victim in a Baby Jane Doe cold case.

www.fox10tv.com

View attachment 44537

Beautiful Baby

 

[Sue sue]

Apparently the baby was also given the name Delta Dawn.

Redirect Notice

 

[Sevens My Charm]

And the asshole who killed them lived a full life until his death..

 

[Sugar Cookie]

Poor Pudd

An autopsy performed on the child's body revealed that someone had attempted to smother her before she had entered the river, although the child had still been alive when she had entered the water, having inhaled murky water from the river into her lungs, thus indicating she had ultimately died of drowning.

The official cause of death would be certified as drowning due to her having inhaled water upon impacting the surface of the river. Investigators would also conclude she had been intentionally deposited into the river from the eastbound I-10 bridge, very likely by the woman seen carrying her two days prior to her discovery (with the woman possibly believing the child had died via the act of smothering).

In life, Delta Dawn had been a healthy toddler, with her age estimated to have been between the ages of one and two years old, most likely being between eighteen months and two years of age. Twelve of her milk teeth had erupted at the time of her death, which influenced the age estimation. The girl was Caucasian, with curly strawberry-blond hair, and has been described as being markedly beautiful in appearance.

Because the child's body had lain in the river for approximately 36 to 48 hours prior to her discovery, her eyes had clouded to such a degree that determining their precise color was very difficult, although it is believed they had been either blue or brown. Despite the elemental damage to the eyes, her face was described as being in a "recognizable" condition. She was around two feet six inches in height, weighed around 25 pounds and although no food was found in her stomach, she showed no signs of having been malnourished. The girl wore a pink and white Cradle Togs checkered dress, decorated with three flowers on its front, along with a diaper.

Extensive searches were conducted to find the body of the woman seen floating face-down within the Escatawpa River on December 5; equal efforts have been made to locate and/or identify the acutely distressed woman seen walking along Interstate 10 carrying a barefooted child in her arms on December 3, should the body sighted by the truck driver actually not have been hers.

All efforts proved fruitless. Several scenarios surrounding the death of Delta Dawn have been theorized, with the most common contemporary assertion being that the woman seen with the toddler was the child's mother, who had either accidentally or intentionally caused the child's death before subsequently committing suicide

Following the discovery of Delta Dawn, newspapers throughout the country published stories of the discovery of the child's body, and the sightings on Interstate 10 two days previously. These stories often featured contemporary forensic facial reconstructions of how the child had most likely appeared in life. All initial efforts proved unsuccessful with ascertaining the identity of Delta Dawn via this technique.

A contemporary report of a woman who informed sheriff's deputies that she had "given away" her child to a group of men was originally connected to the case by the investigating officers, although these investigators rapidly determined that the subject requesting assistance had a male child, thus enabling investigators to quickly determine this report as being irrelevant to this case.

In 2009, the body of Delta Dawn was exhumed in order that investigators could obtain a DNA sample from her body which could be entered into both the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children databases for comparison with nationwide unsolved murders and missing person reports. Initially, no DNA match with Delta Dawn or the individual believed to have been her mother was obtained.

On December 4, 2020, Jackson County Sheriff's Office announced the identification of Delta Dawn as 18-month-old Alisha Ann Heinrich of Joplin, Missouri. Her identity was confirmed via DNA sequencing and genetic genealogy, with the child's DNA linked to family members in Missouri, where her mother, Gwendolyn Mae Clemons, had previously lived. The process of generating a profile suitable for uploading into a public genealogy database was performed by a lab operated by Othram Inc.; the research was conducted by forensic genealogists under Redgrave Research Forensic Services.

Gwendolyn Clemons had recently divorced from the father of her daughter. She, her daughter, and an unnamed boyfriend had reportedly disappeared "on or around" November 24, 1982, from the family's residence in Kansas City, Missouri. The intent of their departure was to relocate to the state of Florida, with Clemons informing her relatives of her intentions to start life anew in this state.

The boyfriend later returned to Missouri alone. The man, now deceased, has been described as both a "person of interest" and a suspect in various media reports.

The circumstances surrounding Alisha's death, and the simultaneous disappearance of her mother, remain under active investigation by the Jackson County Sheriff's department. Investigators remain uncertain as to Clemons' ultimate fate. At a press conference held on December 4, 2020, Sheriff Mike Ezell informed reporters: "We do not know if she is dead or alive at this point. We're assuming the worst, but we don't know that for sure."

Prior to the Jackson County Sheriff's Department's formal announcement of the identity of Delta Dawn as Alisha Ann Heinrich, the previously unknown woman accompanying the child upon the eastbound Interstate 10 bridge was theorized to have been responsible for her death in a suspected murder-suicide, although this theory is now in doubt.

Murder of Alisha Heinrich - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org