Woman charged decades after newborn baby found dead on Texas roadside

JOHNSON COUNTY, Texas (WJW) – More than 20 years after a newborn girl was found dead on the side of a Texas road, a woman identified as the child’s mother has been charged with second-degree manslaughter, authorities said.

According to a press release from the Texas Attorney General, Shelby Stotts is accused of negligently causing the death of her newborn daughter by leaving the baby unattended on the side of the road, failing to seek medical care after birth, and failing to clamp the baby’s umbilical cord, which caused the child to bleed to death.

In November 2001, the infant’s body was discovered in a ditch with the umbilical cord still attached. According to the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office, a local resident was picking up cans when he found the dead child wrapped in a jacket.

Officials with the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office said they worked “tirelessly” to identify the child, but the case remained unsolved for years. The baby became known as “Angel Baby Doe.”

Then in 2021, advanced DNA testing helped provide new clues in the case and pointed investigators to possible relatives of the infant.

Officials say Stotts will be prosecuted under the laws in effect at the time the crime was committed.