The parents of an unnamed newborn found dead in a dumpster have been identified and charged with her death 31 years later. Inga Johansen Carriere and Andrew Carriere, both 50, have been charged with the first-degree murder of their baby daughter in 1992. The “fully developed newborn” was found in the bin behind a defunct pizzeria in Picayune, near the Mississippi-Louisiana border in the US.
The little girl, wrapped in towels and stuffed in a bin bag, was found dead in April 1992. The autopsy at the time suggested she had “probably” been born on the day she died.
The coroner estimated she had likely been premature and “lived a few minutes before she was smothered”.
Mississippi police were able to identify the couple as the girl’s parents thanks to new DNA technology, locating them in Louisiana.
The case was declared a homicide in 1992 but the trail ran cold until 2021 when a new multi-state investigation was launched.
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Johansen Carriere’s lawyer, public defender Paul Fleming, said his understanding was that the child was “stillborn” and argued investigators could not charge her with murder as the girl was “not a person” in the eye of the law.
Fleming told Fox News: “We’ve only seen a couple of cases this old, but not that many.
“DNA wasn’t that prevalent back in the ’90s. It was around, but it was a new science.
“It wasn’t done on a regular basis and took weeks to come back with results…
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“The age of the case will be problematic to prosecute and problematic to defend.”
Police conducted new DNA tests on the newborn’s remains after locating her burial plot in 2021.
A spokesperson for Picayune Police said: “We were advised that a local church donated the plot and its members collected money for a headstone.
“In May 2021, a headstone was found at Lee’s Chapel Baptist Church … with the headstone (that) read ‘Heavens Angel’ April 15, 1992 – April 15, 1992.”
Louisiana State Police joined the investigation after the Carrieres, who had since moved to the state, were identified as the little girl’s parents.
In a press release, LSP said: “Through investigative means, detectives were able to identify the infant’s parents as 50-year-old Andrew Carriere and 50-year-old Inga Johansen Carriere, who were living in Louisiana at the time of the death.”
The couple was extradited to Mississippi at the beginning of March and booked into the Jefferson Parish Correctional Facility without bond.
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