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 paralegals 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 theyd 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 babys 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 shed 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 babys likely mother. Police arrested her for murder.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Well said. Very well said.
They used her trash to narrow it down further
New testing showed as you said that her family were likely relatives to the dead baby
How they already had DNA on one of them who knows could be many reasons from crime to hospitals or any other DNA gathering source
Suspecting the mom as the killer is pretty reasonable once you find out who she was ..either her or her family unless she was held hostage by baby killers at the time
The circumstances is definitely more to the story
Hope ya'll are well and safe from the creeping crud.
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