DNA technology leads to arrest in cold case death of newborn baby

CHARDON — Twenty-six years ago a dead baby boy was found in Geauga County and the case went unsolved until Thursday.

Gail Eastwood Ritchey, 49, of Euclid, was charged with aggravated murder and murder in the cold case, according to officials from the Geauga County sheriff’s and prosecutor’s offices, who hosted a press conference Thursday afternoon.

Sheriff Scott Hildenbrand was on the scene March 25, 1993 when the baby was found on Sidley Road in Thompson Township. The newborn baby was dead with a partially attached umbilical cord and partially dismembered by what appeared to be animals.

“For the past 26 years, the Geauga County Sheriff’s Office has been working very hard to solve the case of Geauga’s baby,” Hildebrand said. “Today, we announce that the case has been solved thanks to the hard work of the men and women of the Geauga County Sheriff’s Office and the suspect is in custody.”

At the time, the baby was sent to the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner, who determined the baby was born alive, but a cause of death was never determined.

The people of Geauga County had a funeral for the baby, got a headstone and named him Geauga’s Child. To this day, the grave is cared for by citizens in the Thompson Cemetery.

Over the years, detectives followed up on thousands of leads, but it wasn’t until the Prosecutor Jim Flaiz and the Sheriff’s Office took advantage of familial DNA techniques that distant family members of Geauga’s Child were identified.

https://www.starbeacon.com/news/local_news/woman-charged-in-unsolved-baby-death/article_f7ce0f74-7d0d-5eb6-9a2e-07a454121298.html