With the help of DNA technology, the mother of an unidentified baby was found dead in a Connecticut parking lot in 1988 has been identified. The unidentified newborn boy was discovered in a parking lot in South Meriden, Connecticut, back on Jan. 2, 1988. According to the Meriden Police Department, he had died of exposure to the frigid temperatures. Police gave the little boy the name “David Paul.” For years, the police department tried to identify the baby and his mother, but the case wasn’t solved until investigators used forensic genealogy, submitting the mystery baby’s DNA to GEDmatch, a third-party genealogy site.
In November 2019, a team of genealogists found a distant match to the mother, and on Jan. 2, 2020 — 32 years to the day after “David Paul” was found — Karen Roche was found to be the mother. Roche was 25 years old in 1988 and told officers she delivered the baby herself at home. She told police she left he baby at the base of a tree on Dec. 28 and called the South Meriden fire department to report that there was something they needed to look for in the parking lot.
Roche is not expected to face charges, according to police. While manslaughter is an appropriate charge, the statute of limitations has passed.
