Boston police know who Baby Doe is, sources say

BOSTON— Authorities have identified a young girl who was found dead inside a bag on a Boston Harbor beach this summer and whose case sparked a massive social media campaign to find out what happened to her, a law enforcement official briefed on the case said Friday. Police received information Wednesday that prompted them to search an apartment in Boston’s Mattapan section Thursday, the official told The Associated Press. Authorities have been in contact with some family members of the girl, the official said.

The official, not authorized to release details of the investigation, did not wish to be named.

Aspokesman for the Suffolk district attorney’s office would say only that the investigation remains “very active.”

A state police spokesman said in an email that “the investigation is ongoing” but “state police have nothing to add beyond that at this point.” Authorities did not publicly announce her identity.

The girl, named Baby Doe by investigators, was estimated to be 4 years old. Her body was found June 25 inside a trash bag on Deer Island in Winthrop, northeast of Boston, by a woman walking a dog.

Police immediately appealed to the public for help in identifying the girl. Using photos of her remains, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children created a composite image of what the girl might have looked like when she was alive.

Within two weeks of the discovery of her body, the image of the chubbycheeked, brown-eyed girl had tugged on heartstrings around the world. By early July, the image reached an estimated 47 million people.