DNA Testing Identifies Parents in 1983 Minnesota Infant Death Case, No Charges Planned
Blaine, MN (MinnesotaNow)- A 42-year-old Minnesota cold case involving an infant’s death has been solved.
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That’s according to a news release issued by the Anoka County Sheriff’s Office on Wednesday night. The case stemmed from the discovery of a deceased newborn in January of 1983.
Investigators have spent more than four decades attempting to identify the infant’s parents.
Investigators ID Parents of Baby Girl Found on Side of the Road in Blaine in January of 1983
A motorist found a baby girl, who was named Rachel Marie Doe by investigators, on the side of the road along Main St. between Hwy. 65 and Radisson Rd. in Blaine. The infant’s placenta was still attached.
An autopsy was unable to determine whether or not the baby girl had been born alive. A recent autopsy came to the same conclusion, the news release says.
After multiple interviews, requests for public assistance and follow-ups on leads, investigators could not identify the infant’s parents.
The quest for answers in the case gained new life when the Anoka County Sheriff’s Office Cold Case Unit, which launched in 2024, determined the case qualified for further genealogical testing thanks to saved biological evidence.
A forensic genetic genealogy lab conducted tests of the baby girl’s umbilical cord and identified the suspected mother and father. Investigators confirmed the woman identified through the test was the infant's mother.
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She told law enforcement she kept her pregnancy a secret and gave birth to the child when she was a teenager while at her parent’s home alone.
The child was born unresponsive and in a panic, the mother left the baby on the side of the road hoping someone would pick up the young infant, the woman told investigators.
Authorities interviewed the man identified as the baby’s father and he told investigators he never knew the child’s mother was pregnant.
Investigators forwarded the case to the Anoka County Attorney’s Office to review for potential charges related to laws that were in place in 1983.
The county attorney declined to press charges, citing a lack of evidence of a homicide occurring and the statue of limitations regarding disposal of human remains.
The names of the mother and father will not be released, the news release says.
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