Police charge parent in 1984 infant death
After almost four decades of not knowing who the parents of an infant, only known as Baby Mary, abandoned and left to die in the cold in Mendham on Christmas Eve 1984, the Morris County Prosecutor’s Office announced they finally have identified the girl’s parents.
In a press conference on Thursday, Morris County Prosecutor Robert Carroll said a juvenile delinquency complaint was filed and the infant’s mother was arrested in South Carolina in April and is currently being monitored.
Baby Mary was found by two boys who were fishing at Woodland Lake in Dismal Harmony Park. Police found the baby girl in a plastic bag, wrapped in a towel and with her umbilical cord still attached. Carroll said the medical examiner determined Baby Mary had been alive when she was born and was under 24 hours old.
Carroll said the mother was 17 years old when she gave birth and that Baby Mary’s father was 19 but did not know about the baby. Both were residents of Morris County at the time of Baby Mary’s birth but Carroll declined to go into specifics. The father died in 2009 and Carroll said they would not be releasing the mother’s name because she was a juvenile at the time.
The mother is charged with manslaughter and could face up to three years in prison.
“The death and abandonment of this baby girl is a tragic loss and even after 40 years remains just as heartbreaking,” Carroll said. “Justice may not take the form the public has imagined all these years, but we believe with this juvenile delinquency complaint, justice is being served for Baby Mary.”
While Baby Mary’s DNA was collected in 1984, it was advances in technology that helped lead to the parents’ discovery. Carroll didn’t go into detail about the technology but said law enforcement agencies in New Jersey, Flordia and South Carolina as well as the FBI worked together in order to solve the case.
Carroll said Baby Mary’s father was found first and chased down “hundreds if not thousands of leads” to find her mother.
“The arrest is a culmination of decades of effort across multiple generations of law enforcement,” Carroll said. “It is a tribute to the tenacity and the dedication of the Morris County Prosecutor’s Office, our major crimes unit, Morris County Sheriff’s Office and the Mendham Township Police Department for the resolution in this matter.”
Carroll acknowledged and thanked the multitude of other law enforcement who were involved in the search and investigation.
Mendham Township Police Chief Ross Johnson said his police department has spent the last 40 years investigating Baby Mary’s death and that former Chief Stephen Crawford called for a reexamination of the case in 2014, which would have been Mary’s 30th birthday.
The police, the township and its residents have spent the last 35 years honoring the baby girl found on that winter day. She was named Mary by the Rev. Michael Drury, a pastor of St. Luke’s Parish in Long Valley and the police, fire and EMS chaplain for Mendham.
The police department raised money to have Baby Mary buried at St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church. Every year, people gather to honor and remember Baby Mary
Morris County Sheriff James Gannon spoke about the Safe Haven Law that was passed in New Jersey in 2000. The law allows parents to anonymously surrender infants to hospitals and police, fire and EMS stations that are open 24 hours, seven days a week. Gannon said if the baby is less than 30 days old and there is no abuse or neglect apparent, the infants will be accepted with no questions asked.
“This is about no shame, no blame and no names,” Gannon said.