Twenty-five years after the death of a newborn baby in Jeanerette, the Iberia Parish Sheriff deputies arrest a 50-year-old woman and charged her with first-degree murder in the death of Baby Jane Doe. Major Wendell Raborn says DNA left from the infant child matched a family member of Sonia Charles and follow up police work led to getting a DNA sample from Charles.
“The Acadiana Crime Lab expedited the research of that and they came back with a positive match of the mother, which turned out to be Sonia Charles,” said Raborn.
Charles was booked into the Iberia Jail for First Degree Murder.
Raborn says thanks to DNA evidence they believe Charles placed her newborn child in a 55-gallon drum outside of a car wash in January of 1994.
“And of course DNA doesn’t lie, it is very specific to each individual,” sais Raborn.
The coroner’s office says the baby lived for several hours before passing away from hypothermia.
Raborn says Detective Scott Hotard who originally worked on the case in 1994, reopened the homicide investigation after new leads were developed.
“The closer it got, the more the crime lab told us you are getting closer and closer and when they said we got a match that was gratifying,” said Raborn
