Vermont State Police close case of infant found dead in Northfield in 1982

Vermont State Police announced last week that they had identified the parents of a toddler found dead on the side of a road in Northfield more than 40 years ago.

The names of the parents are not being released because no charges are being filed, state police said.

The toddler, whom investigators call “Baby Doe,” was found on April 1, 1982, by a group of children waiting for a school bus on what is now Gillespie Road in Northfield.

The coroner found that the little boy had an illness, but could not determine the cause or manner of death.

Investigators searched the area and collected evidence, but were not able to identify the baby and his parents until December 2021.

Parabon NanoLabs, a Virginia-based DNA technology company that worked with VSP, used 42-year-old blood and tissue samples from the baby to create a list of people who could be the infant’s parents.

Investigators found that two of the names on the list had connections to the Northfield area in 1982. After taking DNA samples, it was confirmed that the two adults were the parents of the infant found in Northfield.

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According to VSP, the father told investigators he left Vermont in 1982 and knew nothing about the pregnancy.

The mother told investigators she did not realize she was pregnant until she went into labor. The woman lost consciousness during the pregnancy and woke up to find the baby was dead, according to a state police news release.

The woman took the baby to a wooded area to bury it, but dropped it and ran away when she thought she heard voices, said Captain Jeremy Hill, head of the VSP’s major crimes unit.

“Of course, that wasn’t the right thing to do,” Hill said in an interview. “But at the time, she was scared – she didn’t know what to do.”

Washington County District Attorney Michelle Donnelly, after reviewing statements from the baby’s parents and autopsy reports, concluded that a murder charge was not warranted.

“We still don’t have enough evidence to say this was an intentional act by the mother,” Hill said.

The other possible charge, unauthorized disposal of a corpse, could not be brought because the statute of limitations for this charge is three years.

The Baby Doe case was one of more than 80 unsolved murder and missing persons cases in Vermont. These unsolved cases are difficult to solve, and police have solved very few unsolved cases in the last decade.

Burlington police announced last year that they had solved the 50-year-old murder of Rita Curran, and in 2022 the Major Crime Unit arrested a suspect in a 1989 double murder.

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