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shy
Crypt Keeper
 
Australia
2014 Posts |
 Posted - 27 April 2004 : 8:06:31 PM
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Detectives Pinning Hopes On Possibility Of DNA Evidence, New Publicity
CLINTON -- A squat and wobbly wooden picket fence, decorated with white and gold bows, surrounds the flat gravestone that marks the place where a murdered baby was buried 28 years ago.
Only the words "Baby X, 1975" are etched into the burial stone, but this is not all that remains of the only unsolved homicide case in this town.
There is the green plastic bag in which Baby X, a newborn with her umbilical cord still attached, was partially wrapped when she was found dead by children playing in a field on Jan. 31, 1975.
Although police did their best, neither the mother nor anyone else who might have known of the incident was ever found.
The town has not completely forgotten the sad case that gripped residents back then and led then-Gov. Ella Grasso to post a $3,000 reward. Someone - the police don't know who - is tending the gravesite and the police have just reopened the case.
On Tuesday, the Middlesex state's attorney's office received notification from Clinton police that they are working again to find the killer of Baby X.
Whether the reward is still valid "is something we have to look into along with other aspects of the case, but we just got it today," said Maureen Platt, assistant state's attorney.
When Baby X was discovered behind a Boston Post Road shopping center in a field now paved over, Police Det. Joseph Flynn was in elementary school and Det. Jim Budkus was in junior high school in town. But both remember.
"Oh yeah, it was a big deal," Budkus said.
So, when the two detectives were asked by Sgt. Jim Fitzgerald, who is in charge of evidence for the local police department, to look into the case, the memories came back. The two men are determined to "bring closure," Flynn said Tuesday.
News clips from the time show a sympathetic response from residents and from people far from town, at least one of whom wanted to adopt the deceased infant so she could have a name when she was buried.
The baby, an autopsy at the time showed, was full-term and healthy when born about five to six weeks before she was discovered. The cause of death was exposure and suffocation.
The only lead came in 1981 when a woman called the police and said she knew who the mother was but wanted guarantees of anonymity because she didn't want "to cause family problems."
Though police promised to protect her identity, she didn't reveal any more information except to say she wasn't the only person who knew the whole story.
Back then, tracing an untapped phone was impractical. Likewise, forensic technology was more limited, so the bag yielded no clues.
Now, DNA testing has the two detectives hopeful.
The bag is being sent to the state's forensic lab, but even if information is found, a suspect is needed.
Flynn and Budkus hope that when word gets out that the Baby X case is reopened, people who didn't step forward 28 years ago might do so now, because of the long passage of time.
The detectives, however, are not eager to throw the book at the mother, should she be responsible, saying she may have been a confused girl at the time. They said the state's attorney's office, when they inquired, was unclear how the law would treat a suspect.
"But it was homicide," Flynn said. "The baby was born alive and left to die in a field."
"You can't ignore homicide," Budkus said.
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Helen Bach
Corpse
 
USA
7 Posts |
Posted - 15 June 2004 : 03:31:05 AM
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| i hope they solve the caes but i doubt they ever do. |
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bloodsfire
Ghost
 
USA
162 Posts |
Posted - 12 August 2004 : 9:40:19 PM
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Death by exposure and suffocation do indeed point to 'wrongful causes', but Baby X may not have been the only victim...
What if the mother or caretaker were rendered incapable of helping the infant, fell prey to a violent attack, a severe physical infirmity like heart failure or stroke? What if the mysterious "informer' was actually the mother, doing her best to expose the crime, without endangering her own life?
What if....
Great Unsolved Story, shy!
"Say hello, to the shrinking in your head, you can't see it but you know it's there, so don't neglect it." |
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renaeshea
Ghost
Australia
54 Posts |
Posted - 05 April 2005 : 4:53:36 PM
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this is so sad, i hop they solve this crime, this baby needs a identy,  |
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Police Tackle Unsolved Case Of Slain Baby X
