25 Years After 'Baby Jane Doe' Is Found Dead in Trash, La. Mom is Arrested on Murder Charges

Photo: Iberia Parish Sheriff’s Office

The newborn girl was found dead on Jan. 24, 1994, at a car wash in Jeanerette, Louisiana. Her tiny body was inside a 55-gallon drum that was being used as a trash can.

Next to her, police found a receipt, a girdle and bloody newspapers.

Over 200 people from the small town attended her funeral. She was buried with a Raggedy Ann doll.

Charles was booked Wednesday into the Iberia Parish Jail on first-degree murder charges.

“The crime lab solved this case for us,” he says.

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Raborn says Charles voluntarily gave a DNA sample.

“In this day and age, science has led us to solve these long, old, cold cases,” he says. “This one is 25-years-old. It is good to see that justice plays out and that there is a closure for the community and for law enforcement.”

The case, says Raborn, was a tough one to crack.

“You have an infant who is placed in a trash can in a very small community at a car wash that is not used late at night, so the chance of witnesses are very slim,” he says. “Without new information, it did become a cold case.”

The murder investigation was reopened a few months ago after a local group looking into unsolved murder cases “started promoting [it] and getting the community to come out to help,” Raborn says.

Raborn adds, “Unless she tells us exactly what the motivation was we could only guess. Only she holds the true nature of why she did it.”

Charles is scheduled to appear in court Thursday. She is being held in jail on $125,000 bail. It is unclear if she has retained an attorney.

source: people.com