Alachua County Baby Jane Doe is an unidentified baby girl who was found dead in a pond in Gainesville, Florida, over 10 years ago, and her case remains unsolved.
On Aug. 20, 2003, officers with the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office were dispatched to a private pond at the end of Northwest 102nd Place after receiving a 911 call about a deceased child.
When they arrived on the scene, officers encountered the body of a baby floating in the pond.
According to CBS 4 News, a resident was walking near the pond when he noticed an object floating in the water, which he initially believed to be a doll.
As he got closer to the pond, he realized it wasn’t a doll and immediately notified the police.
After the body was recovered from the water, it was determined through DNA technology that the baby was a black female and that both of her parents were more than likely of Caribbean descent.
Authorities believed the baby was between two weeks and five months old at the time of her death, but they could not identify her or her parents. That’s when she became known as Alachua County Baby Jane Doe.
Information about her cause of death is unavailable.
According to WCJB TV20 News, the Gainesville First Baptist Church adopted Alachua County Baby Jane Doe and arranged for her to have a proper burial.
A detective stated that her body was exhumed in 2016 for “isotope testing and facial reconstruction.” They also removed a small portion of her jawbone, which was sent for testing at a later date when new technology emerged.
They are hopeful that new testing will help locate relatives of the baby as well as find out what happened to Alachua County Baby Jane Doe.
Art Forgey with the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office said, “We have a DNA profile, and we’re trying to match it where people try to learn their genealogy and try to find out who this was, who her family was, who her relatives were.”
“No one cared enough about her in the end that they chose to dump her, so we’ve made it our mission to find out who she was.”
Anyone with information regarding the unsolved death of Alachua County Baby Jane Doe is encouraged to contact Investigator Kevin Allen at (352) 384-3323 or send an email to kallen@alachuasheriff.org.
Tipsters can also contact Crime Stoppers anonymously at (352) 372-STOP.