The Vermont State Police investigators have used advanced DNA testing to close out a suspected homicide

The Vermont State Police investigators have used advanced DNA testing to close out a suspected homicide of a newborn baby found dead in a garbage bag on the side of a road in Northfield in April 1982. Four Northfield children were waiting for a school bus at about 7 a.m. on April 1, 1982, when they discovered the abandoned baby along Mill Hill Road. The road, which runs between Williamstown and Northfield, is better known today as Gillespie Road. The identity of the mother and father remained a total mystery for several decades, but state police said in July 2020 that it hoped new emerging investigative techniques involving DNA could be used to identify one or both parents. The police said the work was done with Parabon NanoLabs in Reston, VA.

The genetic genealogy testing led to possible leads in Maine, and eventually, DNA was obtained from both suspected parents. Investigators determined both suspects had ties to the Northfield area in 1982. Vermont State Police investigators declined to name the parents of the child.  Officials said the baby was born alive and biologically normal, and the death was due to abuse. The bag had been thrown over an embankment, and a dog began dragging it along the road, police said. When the school children caught up to it, they tore open the bag to see the contents. The baby was wrapped in a brown bath towel and sealed inside a plastic garbage bag. Evidence showed the baby boy was carried to full term and born alive – likely nearby and only a few hours before he was discovered, police said. They said the brown-haired baby still had the umbilical cord attached. Police said there was no reason to believe the mother was from Northfield or a Vermonter.