'Baby Jane Doe' identified after being found in Mississippi river 38 years ago
Eighteen-month-old Alisha Ann Heinrich has been identified 38 years after her body was pulled from a Mississippi river. Her mother 23-year-old Gwendolyn Clemons hasn't been found. (Jackson County Sheriff's Office)
After 38 years, a small child found floating in a Mississippi river has been identified—only deepening her mysterious cold case death.
Eighteen-month-old Alisha Ann Heinrich, of Joplin, Mo., was known over the decades as “Baby Jane Doe” until DNA and genetic genealogy cracked the case.
The 38th anniversary of her discovery in the Escatawpa River in Pascagoula was Saturday.
Jackson County Sheriff Mike Ezell on Friday announced the big break in the case.
But still to be solved is what happened to Alisha’s mother, Gwendolyn Mae Clemons who was 23 in 1982.
“She hasn't been seen or heard from since she and Alisha disappeared from the Joplin, Missouri, area around Thanksgiving 1982,” Ezell said. “Our investigators hope the identities will lead to more clues to solve this case. It remains open and active.”
Investigators, however, aren’t holding out much hope Clemons is alive.
They’ve asked other law enforcement with unidentified bodies to see if one could be Clemons.
Ezell said Clemons told family members she planned to start a new life in Florida and left Missouri with her daughter and a boyfriend, according to the Jackson Clarion Ledger.
The sheriff said the boyfriend returned to Missouri and later died, WLBT-TV reported.
He is suspected of killing Alisha and possibly Clemons, according to the station.
Alisha’s death was ruled drowning but strangulation couldn’t be ruled out, the Clarion Ledger reported.
“The family were under the assumption that Alisha was alive and living somewhere,” Ezell told a news conference. “I guess they were just hopeful.
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He said they were thankful to now know what happened to the little girl.