by Mike Donoghue, Vermont News First
NORTHFIELD – The Vermont State Police investigators have used advanced DNA testing to close out a suspected homicide of a 1-day old baby found dead in a garbage bag on the side of a road in Northfield in April 1982.
Four Northfield children were waiting for a school bus about 7 a.m. on April 1, 1982 when they discovered the abandoned baby along Mill Hill Road, state police said at the time. The road, which runs between Williamstown and Northfield, is better known today as Gillespie Road.
The baby, initially called “Baby Boy Doe,” was later given the name Matthew Isaac Doe by a Northfield minister who conducted a funeral at St. Mary’s Church in Northfield with about 80 people attending, news accounts said.
The identity of the mother and father stayed a total mystery for several decades, but state police said in July 2020 that it hoped new emerging investigative techniques involving DNA could be used to identify one or both parents. The work was done with Parabon NanoLabs in Reston, Va., police said.
The genetic genealogy testing led to possible leads in Maine and eventually DNA was obtained from both suspected parents, officials said. Investigators determined both suspects had ties to the Northfield area in 1982.
Vermont State Police investigators declined to name the parents of the child.
The Major Crime Squad and Cold Case Division have made significant strides in the case, VSP spokesman Adam Silverman confirmed on Friday afternoon.
“The Vermont State Police has made progress on this investigation and is planning an announcement early next week. We’ll provide more information at that time,” Silverman said.
Attempts to reach Washington County State’s Attorney Michelle Donnelly by phone, email and text on Friday were unsuccessful.
The case generated national news at the time as state police put out a wide net looking to find a pregnant woman that had delivered a baby and no longer had the child.
At the time Vermont State Police Detective Ron DeVincenzi and State’s Attorney Gregory W. McNaughton spent considerable time talking about investigative leads and trying to get the public to report possible tips about the identity of the parents.
Dr. Paul Morrow, Vermont’s Chief Medical Examiner at the time, worked with officials, who said the death was classified a homicide even with the exact cause unknown.
Officials said the baby was born alive and biologically normal and the death was due to abuse, the Burlington Free Press reported on April 9, 1982.
The bag had been thrown over an embankment and a dog began dragging it along the road, police said. When the school children caught up to it, they tore open the bag to see the contents, DeVincenzi said at the time.
The baby was wrapped in a brown bath towel and sealed inside a plastic garbage back, state police said.
Evidence showed the baby boy was carried to full term and born alive – likely nearby and only a few hours before he was discovered, police said. They said the brown- haired baby still had the umbilical cord attached.
Police said there was no reason to believe the mother was from Northfield or even a Vermonter.
The mother, police speculated, probably told friends and relatives that she gave the child up for adoption or the child died during birth, the Free Press reported.
The minister conducting the funeral, the Rev. Frank Wisner III, said, “It was something I needed to do.” He used the two names Matthew and Isaac for Biblical reasons to provide the child an identity.
The state police attended the funeral in the hopes that one or both parents would show up out of guilt or remorse, Wisner said.
The boy was buried at Mount Hope Cemetery in Northfield following the service with a large headstone.
McNaughton, as the top prosecutor at the time, admitted officials were baffled. “Usually on something like this when we make a request through the media for information, we get quite a few calls,” he said.
We haven’t had much information at all,” McNaughton, who was called to the scene along with Dr. Kevin Crowley, the regional medical examiner, the Times Argus reported.
Authorities reached out to hospitals, doctors and others, but were limited with responses due to doctor-patient privilege, said McNaughton, who ordered the autopsy.
The case was initially reported to Northfield Police, but due to the expense of a wide-ranging in-depth investigation it was punted to the Vermont State Police.