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The body of eighteen-month-old Alisha Ann Heinrich was found on the bank of the Escatawpa River on the Mississippi coast on December 5, 1982.
American investigators say DNA tests identified a young Missouri boy whose body was found on a riverbank in Mississippi in 1982.
The girl long known as “Baby Jane” or “Delta Dawn” has been identified as 18-month-old Alisha Ann Heinrich. The Jackson County, Mississippi sheriff announced the boy’s identity at a news conference on Friday (local time).
Sheriff Mike Ezell said an officer found the girl’s body on the shore of the Escatawpa River on the Mississippi coast on December 5, 1982.
Her mother, Gwendolyn Mae Clemons, sometimes also known as Gwendolyn Mae Clemons Heinrich, was a 23-year-old resident of Joplin, Missouri. She left home on Thanksgiving 1982 along with her daughter and a boyfriend, and told family members that they planned to start a new life in Florida, Ezell said.
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Clemons hasn’t been heard from since 1982, Ezell said. The man she was dating later returned to Missouri and has now passed away, she said. The sheriff did not release his name.
Not long after authorities found Baby Jane, former Jackson County Sheriff Virgil Moore and his wife asked to give her a proper burial as no one had claimed her body, the Herald of the sun reported. The baby’s body was exhumed from a cemetery in the county in 2009 so investigators could obtain DNA.
Authorities said the breakdown occurred when the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office received the information necessary to identify the girl and her mother with the help of Othram Inc, a Texas-based company specializing in DNA technology.
Orthrom determined the baby’s lineage through DNA testing and tracked down the boy’s aunt and other relatives, ultimately helping him find his identity. Investigators traveled to speak with the mother’s family.
“They were still under the assumption that Alisha was alive and living somewhere, but they were very grateful that after 38 years, the case was still being investigated,” said FBI agent Joe Bignell.
On December 3, 1982, witnesses reported seeing a woman with a young child along Mississippi Highway 63 and Interstate 10 in Jackson County. One person told investigators she was monitoring CB radio that night when a woman with a child was reported walking the interstate in distress but refused to allow anyone to help her, WLOX-TV reported.
Two days later, a truck driver called the police to report that he saw the body of a woman in the Escatawpa River. An agent responded and, while searching for the woman, found the body of the baby.
Although authorities dredged the woman’s body, it was never found.
