Cold case solved: Police learn story of baby tossed into Nebraska river 19 years ago

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) — Norfolk Police have identified the woman who sent her dead baby down the Elkhorn River nearly 20 years ago.

Officers responded to the Norfolk Fork of the river on June 17, 2004. They recovered the body of a newborn baby boy from the water.

The baby’s autopsy didn’t determine whether he had been born alive. Authorities were also unable to identify the mother.

“We didn’t have much to go on at the time,” Police Chief Don Miller said. “Of course, 19 years ago, DNA wasn’t what it is today.”

But the police department held on to a DNA sample.

And Miller said they did whatever they could to learn more.

“We did door-to-door searches, we talked to the schools, we talked to the hospitals, trying to find anybody and everybody who may have been pregnant at the time,” he said.

But they didn’t have any luck. And time continued to pass.

“Eventually, the case went cold,” Miller said. “Every once in a while, somebody would call us, or they would hear something about a potential mother who was pregnant and didn’t have a baby afterwards, so we would follow up on those leads.”

Authorities would revisit the case over the years with the hope that new technology would lead to a breakthrough.

In March, Norfolk Police partnered with the University of Nebraska Medical Center’s DNA lab to reassess the sample.

Using an investigative genealogy process, researchers identified a possible mother.

Detectives then traveled to the mother’s home, which was in a nearby community.

Police took a DNA sample from the woman, which confirmed her as the mother.

“She acknowledged that she was the right person,” Miller said. “She was a juvenile at the time, and because she was a juvenile, we chose not to release her name.”

The mother told police she had the child at home.

The baby was stillborn, and she decided to dispose of the boy in the river.

Detectives also interviewed another person aware of the situation, who corroborated the event.

The department said that any crime has passed the statute of limitations and that evidence is insufficient for a prosecution.

But Miller said that wasn’t the main reason he wanted to solve the case.

“All alone, it was a matter of getting an answer for the baby, getting an answer for the community,” he said.

Officers plan to continue their investigation, as they now search for the baby’s father and other witnesses.

“As you can imagine, when that first came out that we found a deceased baby, it’s traumatic for the community and the officers,” Miller said. “So having a sense of closure is important. It’s not the end for us. We haven’t given up in 19 years. We’re not going to give up until we have all of the answers.”