A mum is facing up to 27 years in jail after admitting to leaving her newborn baby to die on a river bank 20 years ago. The boy was one of two babies found beside the Mississippi River between 1999 and 2003 – cold cases which have haunted the local community in the years since.
Jennifer Lynn Matter, 50, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder after investigators charged her with the death of the baby boy, who was found dead by a group of teenage girls in 2003 – his umbilical cord still attached.
Prosecutors have said DNA evidence also links Matter to the newborn baby girl found dead in 1999, though she has not been charged in that case.
“I left (the baby) on the beach, walked away, got into my car, and drove away with no intention of returning,” Matter said in the plea agreement.
According to the criminal complaint, Matter said she hoped someone would find the infant after she left him at Methodist Beach in Goodhue County, Minnesota.
Investigators said DNA samples tied both infants to Matter by a genealogy search that led to potential relatives in Goodhue County.
Speaking after Matter was charged, Goodhue County Sheriff Marty Kelly told a press conference: “It has been 8,222 days since we discovered our first newborn wrapped in a towel and floating in the water.”
Charges said the baby boy died of homicide but his cause of death was undetermined.
Court documents describe how the girl was found in the afternoon of November 4, 1999 “floating in the river” by boat houses wrapped in a white towel, with her umbilical cord still attached.
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Matter continued to live in the area in the intervening years.
She was arrested on May 10, 2022, at her home and will be sentenced on April 28.
The defendant faces a maximum term of 27 years behind bars.
