Who is Lee Ann Daigle? Woman charged with the murder of her newborn baby in 1985

This week, a Massachusetts lady was arrested and charged with the death of her newborn infant, which she allegedly abandoned in a gravel pit in subzero temperatures in December 1985.

The decades-old cold case began when the owners of a Siberian Husky in Frenchville, Maine, brought home what seemed to be a toy. According to FOX Bangor, it turned out to be the body of a baby girl who still had her umbilical cord attached.

According to state police, the mother abandoned the infant in a gravel pit in Northern Maine after giving birth there.

Police said Lee Ann Daigle, 58, was identified using “advancements in technology, including DNA and genetic genealogy.”

She was detained at her Massachusetts home on Monday and entered a not guilty plea in a Maine court on Tuesday.

“There was a tremendous amount of investigative effort put in from day one by the detectives back in 1985 and that effort has continued on,” Lieutenant Jeff Love of the Maine State Police said in a press conference. “We’ve had several successes with these unsolved cases and we have several more. It’s good that we can bring resolution to the family and bring closure to a very tough case.”

The arrest came after “decades” worth of investigative work from dozens of now retired and current detectives who never gave up on finding answers and justice for Baby Jane Doe,” he said. 

“Never, ever, ever did I dream, even with DNA, that they would find the mother,” Lorraine Pelletier, whose dog found the baby, told the Bangor Daily News. “It was so long ago. It puts me in a situation where I am angry at [Daigle], but then again, you can’t hold on to that anger. She was scared, and it just breaks my heart that she never rang our doorbell and never asked for help.”

Daigle’s family reportedly lived in the area at the time.

She said she and her husband were never able to have children of their own.

“We think about it every day,” she added. “It just never goes away. It’s something that just stays with us especially when December comes around. We could have helped her, but I am glad that now we can close this part of the story.”

Daigle is being held at the Aroostook County Jail in Houlton, Maine.