FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. — Authorities in North Carolina say they've solved a 20-year-old cold case by tracking down a woman accused of killing her newborn son and dumping his body in 1999.
The Cumberland County Sheriff's Office said back on March 3, 1999, a plastic bag was tossed from a moving vehicle onto the side of Canady Pond Road. A soldier would later find the bag with what appeared to be a doll inside.
But, it wasn't.
It was a baby boy, not even a day old, with his umbilical cord still attached. Detectives said the baby died from blunt force trauma.
Sheriff Moose Butler pleaded for the parents to come forward. When no one did, he and his staff gave the child a proper burial. They called him "Baby Michael," after the Patron Saint of Law Enforcement.
Twenty years later, detectives have made an arrest in the case. The sheriff's office says it charged 54-year-old Deborah Riddle O’Conner with first-degree murder Thursday.
Investigators say she gave birth to the baby just one day before he was placed in a trash bag and tossed from a car south of Fayetteville. Detectives used DNA evidence to connect O'Conner to the crime. The sheriff said she admitted to being the boy's mother.
O'Conner received no bond. She will have her first appearance on Friday.
