WINONA, Minn. — A search warrant for a DNA swab reveals that investigators believe they have located the mother of a newborn infant found dead in the Mississippi River back in 2011.
The warrant, issued in Winona County on March 12, details the case of a baby found in the river near the community of Homer, just seven miles southeast of Winona, on Sept. 5, 2011. Deputies were dispatched to the scene and helped recover the infant, and the county medical examiner determined the child had been born full-term just a day or two earlier.
An article published on kare11.com at that time noted that investigators called the infant "Baby Angel" because her body had been wrapped up with items that included angel figurines. She was discovered by a family that was out boating on the Mississippi.
The medical examiner's office completed an autopsy that revealed several fractures of the baby's skull but no clear bruising.
Winona County sheriff's investigators called in the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) to work the case and all leads were exhausted, including DNA comparisons with potential parents of the child. No matches were found.
Recently the sheriff's office contracted the services of a nonprofit forensic investigative genealogy company called Firebird Forensics group that has experience with helping law enforcement in criminal cases. In March of 2023, Firebird Forensics notified investigators of a possible tie to a 41-year-old woman who lives with a husband and two children in Winona.
When asked to provide a DNA sample the woman told detectives she needed to research Firebird Forensics before consenting. Investigators then received a letter from a legal firm saying the suspect had hired them as counsel.
"I mean, obviously we explained the situation -- what we're investigating and why. And why we came and knocked on your door. And everyone who's talked to us gave us a voluntary sample. Until now," Winona County Sheriff Ron Ganrude told KARE 11's Lou Raguse Monday.
The search warrant says at that point, an investigator from the sheriff's department conducted what is known as a "trash pull search" and retrieved an item with the suspect's DNA on it. A test in the BCA lab indicated the DNA from the item linked to the woman showed she could be the biological parent of the child found in the river. The report also stated that "discarded samples are not considered known samples for direct comparisons," and called for a direct swabbed sample from the 41-year-old suspect.
A Winona County judge granted a search warrant allowing investigators to collect a DNA sample from the suspect, which they did on March 19.
Sheriff Ganrude said the BCA is comparing the DNA from the infant with the sample collected from the Winona woman, and results are expected in about two weeks.
While the woman's name is on the search warrant, KARE 11 does not usually publish the names of suspects until they are formally charged with a crime.
Retired Winona County Sheriff Dave Brand is among those who have spent years drawing attention to Baby Angel's case on anniversaries. For Brand and others who have worked the case, an answer would bring great closure.
"Whenever there is a death we obviously get very emotional about it, and when it's a child it's even more emotional," Sheriff Ganrude said.
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