Authorities in southern Mississippi have identified the remains of an infant whose death remained a mystery for more than three decades, and investigators say a woman who wrote a letter saying she was the baby’s mother was found dead in her home last week.
Newborn at the time of her death, the girl became known to law enforcement and the community as “Mary Josephine” because a local funeral home gave her that name while preparing her funeral. the funeral. Her body was discovered on the side of an interstate highway in Gulfport on Dec. 21, 1993, and a subsequent autopsy revealed that she died from “blood loss and exposure,” according to the state’s office. Harrison County Sheriff.
Investigators said the baby’s umbilical cord was still attached and determined she was likely born the day before, said Othram, Inc., the lab that performed the tests that ultimately identified her. The circumstances of the death were ruled a homicide by the medical examiner in 1993. Authorities then opened a homicide investigation, but were unable to locate any members of the baby’s family.
Finally, in December 2023, a judge granted a request from investigators and the Harrison County prosecutor to exhume the baby’s body in hopes of identifying it through DNA analysis, which had progressed significantly since its inception. died 30 years earlier.
A DNA sample was collected and sent to Othram’s laboratory in Houston for analysis. Othram said he used the sample to create a comprehensive DNA profile for the infant and analyzed a database to link the profile to potential family members.
Harrison County investigators received the results of those tests last week, including one forensic genetic genealogy assessment that identified possible parents of the newborn. Investigators conducted interviews based on the lab results and identified a woman who they believed could be Mary Josephine’s mother. On October 10, they obtained a search warrant against the woman in order to conduct a DNA comparison and validate her possible relationship to the baby.
The day after obtaining the warrant, investigators attempted to contact the woman they believed might be the infant’s mother, at her home in Gautier, about 40 miles east of Gulfport. They eventually entered the woman’s house and found her dead by suicide.
Investigators also found a letter she had written in the woman’s home. In it, the woman claimed to be Mary Josephine’s mother, according to the Harrison County sheriff.
