Posted on 03/14/2020 9:03:23 AM PDT by wardaddy
On Feb. 11, 2019, undercover detectives removed the trash from outside a 57-year-old paralegal’s home in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, in hopes of finding her DNA.
Police were led to Theresa Bentaas’ home by a new investigative technique that combines direct-to-consumer genetic testing and genealogical records. The detectives believed they were close to solving a crime that had haunted the city for 38 years: a newborn left to die in a frigid roadside ditch, tears frozen to his cheeks.
Once they’d taken the garbage from Bentaas’ home, the detectives pulled out beer cans, water bottles and cigarette butts, according to court documents. They sent the items to a state crime lab, where analysts extracted DNA that they said might belong to the baby’s mother.
Citing those results, one of the detectives got a search warrant to obtain a DNA sample directly from Bentaas. When he showed up at her home, Bentaas admitted to leaving the baby in the ditch in February 1981 after secretly giving birth, saying she’d been “young and stupid” and scared, according to an affidavit submitted by the detective.
A few days later, according to court documents, Bentaas’ DNA swab revealed her as the baby’s likely mother. Police arrested her for murder.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
As for the woman who gave birth to that tragic baby (I won't call her a mother), I wish they could leave her out in 12 degree weather to die alone and unloved with tears on her cheeks and just a blanket to cover her. I am a woman who has zero sympathy for women like her. The year 1981 was not exactly the Dark Ages. There were plenty of alternatives available to her other than just throwing her newborn out into the gutter.
In 1981, birth control was readily available. So was abortion (ugh). So were all sorts of social services, hospitals, fire stations, police stations, etc. Even a "scared" 18-year-old could have dropped the newborn off in any of those places and just walked away.
No, it does not raise legal issues. The Supreme Court has ruled that trash is community property and is not subject to warrants.
Curtilage, kewl! A new word. You made it worth getting out of bed this morning!
Was that wrong?
Trash is discarded property and is not sacrosanct.
She was afraid??? So she does worse than “offend one of these little ones”, she kills her baby. She apparently didn’t fear the one that is able “to destroy both body and soul in hell”.
The unconnected attorney, that the news station asked for expert opinion,.....
Did anyone that saw his face, immediately think, “he looks like Neil Armstrong, circa 1969. Looked just like him.
Too late girl... they're gonna "fry your eyes"
I agree. Police test DNA at crime scenes and from rape victims without a warrant. Why should this be any different?
I’m surprised that baby killer is still alive, seems prison justice would have hit by now.
You can count on the ACLU to rush to the defense of the most brutal murderers.
The Angel that picked him up from that ditch, warmed him and took him to Heaven wiped away those tears and there have been no more, ever.
Burn the bitch!
I think it's really pretty simple, is the trash on your private property? No warrant no checkee. Is the trash placed out on public property, sidewalk, parkway or street? Fair game
Can someone go through your recycle basket and pick out the aluminum cans to sell? I’ve had it happen to me.
If it's like when I owned a home in Anaheim,CA it's supposed to be illegal, we were told(lie) that sorting our recyclables for pick up would generate revenue for the city used to defray some of waste fees. We had thieves, I won't call them scavengers and they weren't homeless trying to get food (or booze/cigarette/drug) money. They were, and I am being accurate not racist, Asians who lived in the neighborhood and were well to do. Bottom line the city did jack to stop the thieving despite numerous resident complaints.
She cares more about her discarded DNA in the garbage as the Discarded baby with her DNA she left in the ditch.
Moneyshot reply
Chema la Zorra
The baby died years before DNA became a crime-solving tool. Residents arranged for a funeral and burial and named the boy Andrew, which was inscribed on his gravestone. In 2009, a detective, hoping to use new DNA analysis methods to find a new lead, arranged for the body to be disinterred, according to court documents. But the baby's DNA profile wasn't closely related to any profiles in the state's crime database.Last year, police turned to investigative genetic genealogy, which seeks DNA links outside of crime databases. Investigators built a family tree that pointed them to Bentaas, according to court documents.
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