Mother arrested nearly 50 years after newborn baby girl found dead in landfill: sheriff

COLUMBUS COUNTY, N.C. (TNND) — Nearly a half century after a newborn baby girl was found dead inside a trash bag at a landfill in North Carolina, investigators said they finally cracked one of the area’s oldest and “most heartbreaking” cold cases.

The Columbus County Sheriff’s Office on Wednesday said the infant’s mother, Cathy McKee, was arrested and charged with concealing the birth of a child.

“As a father, this case is one that hits deeply,” Sheriff Bill Rogers said in a statement. “Every child who enters this world deserves protection, love, and the chance to be known. For 47 years, this baby girl’s life — however brief — mattered to the investigators who first held that case in their hands and to every detective who reviewed it after. She was never just evidence, never just a report. She was a child, and she was never forgotten.”

Rogers said the case dates back to 1979, when deputies responded to the Columbus County landfill after the baby’s body was discovered. He said investigators carried out “an extensive investigation” at the time, but with no clear leads and limited forensic technology, the case eventually went cold.

The sheriff said case was passed from one generation of investigators to the next throughout the years. Some of the deputies who first responded retired or died, but the responsibility they felt that day never faltered, he said.

“What those original investigators did in 1979 would ultimately make today possible,” Rogers said in the statement.

Long before DNA testing became routine, investigators collected and preserved evidence from the scene, believing that one day science might provide answers.

The sheriff’s office formally reopened the case more than a year ago, with detectives partnering with the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) Coastal District and the SBI Cold Case Unit to review the evidence.

Advancements in DNA technology allowed investigators to develop new leads. Through that analysis, authorities said they identified McKee as the child’s biological mother. She was taken into custody Tuesday afternoon.

“Because of the compassion and foresight of those original deputies who preserved the evidence so carefully, and because of the determination of our detectives and SBI partners who have worked tirelessly on this investigation for more than a year, we are finally able to give this child what she deserved all along — the truth,” Rogers said.

“This case shows that in Columbus County, time does not erase responsibility,” he added. “We remember, and we keep working until answers are found.”