DNA testing helps police solve 1976 cold case of infant found disposed in apartment dumpster

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (KCTV) - Police have obtained answers in the cold case of an infant girl found dead inside a dumpster nearly 46 years ago.

Kansas City, Kansas, Police Department Chief Karl Oakman stated that officers had responded to an apartment complex in the 2300 block of Victoria Drive on Nov. 16, 1976, after learning that residents found the child on the property.

Police reported that the baby girl had her umbilical cord still attached, and she was wrapped in dishcloths and put inside a plastic shopping bag.

Police learned that a teen was visiting her mother at the apartment complex, but she left two days after the baby was found. According to police, KCKPD was told the infant belonged to that teen.

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KCKPD was able to find the teen, now in her 60s, a year ago and get a DNA sample to compare with that on the towels with which the baby was wrapped.

As DNA matched the woman, she told police she had given birth to the child, and her grandmother immediately took the baby and walked away. It was the last time she saw the child, the woman told police.

The cold case detective identified the teen’s grandmother, the child’s great-grandmother, as the primary suspect in the case. The teen mother was cleared of any crime.

Police stated the cold case was deemed “exceptionally cleared” since the grandmother has since passed away.

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