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#Post#: 7008--------------------------------------------------
Re: BABY ANDREW: M, newborn, found in a Sioux Falls, SD ditch -
28 February 1981 *IDENTIFIED*
DIR By: Akoya
Date: June 19, 2020, 10:17 am
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HTML https://www.argusleader.com/story/n...pe-dna-leads-parents-abandoned-baby/78762376/
Cold case: Police hope DNA leads to parents of abandoned baby
Mark Walker, mwalker@argusleader.comPublished 3:56 p.m. CT Jan.
16, 2016
35 years ago, a baby was found dead in a ditch. Police hope DNA
testing can determine who his parents were
HTML https://i.imgur.com/DCzSkgN.jpg
Baby Andrew John Doe spent his life at the bottom of an icy
ditch.
Wrapped in a sheet and blanket, he was left to freeze in the
cold of February.
A driver spotted the bundle along Sycamore Avenue, but it was
too late.
Baby Andrew would have turned 35 next month. Instead, his
remains sit in a forensics laboratory in Fort Worth, Texas.
Sioux Falls Police exhumed the baby’s skeletal remains and sent
them south after learning about a method for extracting DNA from
bones. Investigators think the technology gives them a chance to
answer who the baby belonged to and why he was left to die in a
ditch.
“Finding out who the parents are is a fundamental piece in
getting this case resolved,” Police Chief Matt Burns said.
From the archives: Exposure killed baby
One woman did step forward: a stranger who offered to arrange a
funeral but wouldn’t share her name. She did name the baby:
Andrew.
A week after the infant was found, about 50 strangers gathered
for a service to say goodbye. Children left stuffed animals — a
brown bear, a black poodle — next to the tiny casket. A
gold-plated pin was fastened to his yellow pajamas reading “You
are loved.”
At the funeral, detectives scanned the crowd in hopes of
spotting the mother or someone else with answers, but none
emerged.
Today, the case remains one of Sioux Falls’ few unsolved
homicides.
When Sioux Falls Police originally investigated the case, DNA
technology had not yet emerged as a law enforcement tool.
Today, South Dakota’s state crime lab routinely extracts genetic
fingerprints from bodily fluids left behind at crime scenes. The
state lab doesn’t have the expertise or equipment, though, to
isolate DNA from other remains such as bones.
“It’s a different process, it’s a different level of expertise
and it’s a different level of administrative work within the
laboratory,” said Mark Ingraham, associate director of the
laboratory of forensic anthropology at the University of North
Texas.
It’s challenging work for most local crime labs, which are used
to dealing with relatively easy extraction from blood or semen,
Ingraham said.
“We have used them on other missing persons cases where we
submit DNA from family members to their lab to try to develop a
known (relative) of the missing,” said Sara Rabern, a
spokeswoman for the South Dakota Division of Criminal
Investigation.
Sioux Falls Police Chief Matt Burns said when the department
learned about the Texas lab’s ability to draw DNA from skeletal
remains, a decision was made to send Baby Andrew off for
testing. His remains were delivered to the lab last year, and
police expect results later this year.
Dr. Monte Miller, a forensic DNA expert who has worked in crime
labs in Texas and South Dakota, said the strand of DNA the lab
in Texas will hopefully extract could link the baby to his
mother or anyone on her side of the family.
Cold case that baffled investigators, falsely accused man is
solved
Follow Mark Walker on Twiter at @argusmwalker.
#Post#: 7009--------------------------------------------------
Re: BABY ANDREW: M, newborn, found in a Sioux Falls, SD ditch -
28 February 1981 *IDENTIFIED*
DIR By: Akoya
Date: June 19, 2020, 10:19 am
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HTML https://i.imgur.com/rgpgIXL.jpg
#Post#: 7010--------------------------------------------------
Re: BABY ANDREW: M, newborn, found in a Sioux Falls, SD ditch -
28 February 1981 *IDENTIFIED*
DIR By: Akoya
Date: June 19, 2020, 10:22 am
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HTML https://i.imgur.com/uw8ibNM.gif
#Post#: 7011--------------------------------------------------
Re: BABY ANDREW: M, newborn, found in a Sioux Falls, SD ditch -
28 February 1981 *IDENTIFIED*
DIR By: Akoya
Date: June 19, 2020, 10:46 am
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HTML https://www.ksfy.com/content/news/S...lease-new-details-on-cold-case-506879471.html
A Sioux Falls woman arrested on murder and manslaughter charges
told investigators she was "young and stupid" when she allegedly
left her newborn child on the side of the road.
Court documents reveal new details in the cold case from Feb.
28, 1981, in which a baby boy was found dead wrapped in blankets
near what is now 26th Street and Sycamore Avenue.
There authorities found the newborn with the placenta still
attached, a pair of women's underwear, a shirt, and tissues all
with blood on them.
An autopsy showed the baby was born alive but died of exposure
and "failure to assist the baby in maintaining an airway,"
according to court documents.
Detectives followed numerous leads, but the investigation
eventually went "cold."
In the spring of 2009, Detective Mike Webb reopened the case in
hopes of obtaining DNA evidence for testing, technology that did
not exist in the 1980s.
Authorities were approved to work with cemetery officials who
disinterred the baby, who came to be known as Baby "Andrew" John
Doe, from Saint Michael's Cemetery on Sept. 3, 2009.
The appropriate remains were transported to the University of
North Texas Science Center for testing. A DNA profile was
forwarded to the South Dakota Forensics Lab.
The boy's body was re-interred on June 16, 2010.
No DNA matches were found in the South Dakota database. Policy
required the sample be run through the database every year.
The Sioux Falls Police Department recently sent the DNA sample
to Parabon NanoLabs Inc., a company that provides DNA
phenotyping services for law enforcement organizations.
On Jan. 24, 2019, Parabon completed a Genetic Genealogy Report
for Baby Doe. Authorities in Sioux Falls used that report to
build a family tree.
That led them to find the suspect, 57-year-old Theresa Rose
(Josten) Bentaas.
Investigators did a "trash pull" and seized a water bottle, beer
can and cigarette butts that were submitted for testing, which
discovered possible DNA evidence for Baby Doe's biological
mother, father and brother.
Investigators interviewed Theresa and her husband on Feb. 27,
the day authorities believe would have been the boy's 38th
birthday.
Her husband admitted that Theresa had a bump and then no bump
around the time the baby was found. He told investigators he
heard about the baby being found but did not believe Theresa
would do something like that, according to court documents.
Theresa admitted to being pregnant in 1980-1981, but said she
hid it from friends and family. She told investigators she had
the baby at her apartment alone and then drove the baby to the
place it was discovered.
When asked why she picked that particular spot, Theresa said
"proximity," according to court documents.
When asked what she was thinking when she drove away from the
ditch, Theresa told investigators she was sad, scared and that
she ran from it and that it was not smart, according to court
documents.
She said she was in denial when she saw the new reports about
the baby.
When asked if she thinks about it when she drives by the area
now, she told investigators "of course," according to court
documents.
Swab samples confirmed the Bentaas' to be the biological parents
of "Andrew" John Doe, Detective Webb said during a press
briefing Friday.
Authorities arrested Theresa Friday on first-degree murder,
second-degree murder and first-degree manslaughter at her home
in the 3300 block of South Saguaro Avenue, about a mile away
from where the baby was discovered decades ago.
#Post#: 7012--------------------------------------------------
Re: BABY ANDREW: M, newborn, found in a Sioux Falls, SD ditch -
28 February 1981 *IDENTIFIED*
DIR By: Akoya
Date: June 19, 2020, 10:49 am
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"He reached down, lifted the blanket and found a lifeless baby
boy, tears frozen to his cheeks."
#Post#: 7013--------------------------------------------------
Re: BABY ANDREW: M, newborn, found in a Sioux Falls, SD ditch -
28 February 1981 *IDENTIFIED*
DIR By: Akoya
Date: June 19, 2020, 10:51 am
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HTML https://www.scribd.com/document/401635304/Theresa-Bentaas-Arrest-Affidavit#from_embed
Sioux Falls Police Chief Matt Burns on Friday announced the
arrest of Theresa Josten Bentaas, 57, of Sioux Falls, in the
murder of her newborn son, who was found frozen to death in a
ditch Feb. 28, 1981. Bentaas, who was identified as the boy's
mother through genetic genealogy, is charged with first-degree
murder, along with the lesser included offenses of second-degree
murder and manslaughter.
Copyright: ©️ All Rights Reserved
Download as or read online from Scribd
#Post#: 7014--------------------------------------------------
Re: BABY ANDREW: M, newborn, found in a Sioux Falls, SD ditch -
28 February 1981 *IDENTIFIED*
DIR By: Akoya
Date: June 19, 2020, 10:54 am
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HTML https://www.scribd.com/document/401635304/Theresa-Bentaas-Arrest-Affidavit#from_embed
HTML https://i.imgur.com/r857OPA.jpg
#Post#: 7015--------------------------------------------------
Re: BABY ANDREW: M, newborn, found in a Sioux Falls, SD ditch -
28 February 1981 *IDENTIFIED*
DIR By: Akoya
Date: June 19, 2020, 10:55 am
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The trial for a Sioux Falls woman charged in a nearly 40 year
cold case that is scheduled to begin September 3, 2019.
57-year-old Theresa Bentaas faces murder and manslaughter
charges after allegedly leaving her baby outside to die in 1981.
Back in March, Bentaas pleaded “not guilty” to those charges and
a judge set her bond at $250,000.
Police arrested Bentaas after new DNA evidence came to light on
the case. Authorities used DNA from the baby exhumed 10 years
ago, and from Bentaas. According to court documents, Bentaas
admitted to hiding her pregnancy from family and friends.
Bentaas is currently free on bond. She could face life in prison
if convicted.
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