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In a frightening cold case, a Massachusetts mother was convicted after 36 years for allegedly leaving her newborn infant to freeze to death in the Maine woods, as per the officials.
Maine State Police arrested Lee Ann Daigle, 58, outside her Lowell, Massachusetts, home on Monday, ending a lengthy investigation. She is charged with one count of murder for allegedly killing her infant, baby Jane Doe in 1985.
Reportedly, baby Jane Doe's body was discovered on Dec. 7, 1985, in Frenchville, Maine. According to state police, the neighborhood dog was the first to find baby Jane Doe, bringing the newborn's remains in her mouth about 700 feet back to her owner's home.
Reports by Bangor Daily News in 2014 state that the dog’s owners, Armanda Pelletier and Lorraine Pelletier, were astonished to learn what Paca, their pet dog, Siberian Husky, had brought in.
They revealed,
“She kept pounding at the door’s window to get back in. She kept pounding, and after a while, I went to go look, and I could not believe what I saw. I saw what looked like a little rag doll, but when we saw it was a frozen little baby.”
Owners of Siberian Husky that found baby Jane Doe from Maine speak out
Paca returned home shortly after being let out, attempting to get her owners' attention through the sliding glass door in the back of the house. Reportedly, Lorraine described the baby as a 'beautiful girl with reddish-brown hair.’
Paca carried the baby's body with great caution, according to the Pelletiers, and law enforcement certified that the dog had no role in the baby's death.
Aroostook County Sheriff James Madore said in a statement,
“There were some wounds in her head, but they were completely superficial. The dog didn't do anything to hurt that little baby.”
Maine State Police detectives arrived on the scene and were able to follow the dog's trail back to the child's abandoned location. It was allegedly simple to retrace the dog's steps due to the recent snowfall.
Investigators determined that baby Jane Doe "was born and then abandoned in below zero conditions in Maine" at the bottom of a gravel pit based on evidence found at the scene.
Maine State Police Major Charles Love told sources,
“It was so cold, just very, very cold. I was not the officer on the scene, but I was one of the earliest. I was walking around the scene, trying to gather information. It was so quiet in that gravel pit, and it appeared that a vehicle had driven in, as the tracks were very clear in the snow. There were dog’s paw prints right on the snow…I turned and followed those right back to the house, where it had dropped the baby right by the door.”
According to a news release, technical advancements in DNA profiling and genetic genealogy helped the state police identify Lee Ann Daigle as Baby Jane Doe's mother.
Following Daigle's identification as the mother, state police worked with the Maine Attorney General's Office to present probable cause evidence before a criminal grand jury.
Daigle was charged with one count of murder by the Aroostook County Grand Jury. An arrest warrant has been issued for her. She is currently detained in Houlton's Aroostook County Jail.
She appeared in court for the first time through Zoom in the county courtroom on Tuesday at 11:30 a.m.
