North Carolina woman nabbed nearly 50 years after her dead newborn was found — stuffed in trash bag at landfill
A North Carolina woman has been arrested nearly 50 years after her infant daughter’s body was found in a trash bag at a local landfill, ending a decades-long search for the baby’s mother that began in 1979.
Investigators reopened the cold case and used DNA evidence to link 69-year-old Cathy McKee to the Columbus County landfill where the baby was discovered, the Columbus County Sheriff’s Office said. McKee, of Whiteville, was arrested Tuesday, though authorities have not released the baby’s cause of death.
“For 47 years, this baby girl’s life—however brief—mattered to the investigators who first handled the case and to every detective who reviewed it after,” Sheriff Bill Rogers said in a statement. “She was never just evidence, never just a report. She was a child, and she was never forgotten.”
Rogers credited the careful preservation of evidence by the original investigators, which helped solve the case decades later. The investigation was reopened over a year ago, when detectives and state law enforcement agencies applied advances in DNA technology to follow new leads and ultimately connect McKee to the baby.
“Because of the compassion and foresight of those original deputies who preserved the evidence so carefully, and because of the determination of our detectives who worked tirelessly on this investigation, we are finally able to give this child what she deserved all along—the truth,” Rogers said.
The initial investigation in 1979 had “exhausted” every lead before the case went cold. McKee was charged with felony concealing the birth of a child but is not facing murder charges. Rogers explained that under the laws in place in 1979, McKee could not be charged with murder, though she likely would be if the crime occurred today.
News of the arrest shocked McKee’s neighbors, many of whom knew her as a quiet, friendly resident. “I couldn’t hardly believe it,” neighbor Sue Tyson told WWAY. “That’s terrible. I only know her from living on the same road, but I always thought of her as a real nice person.”
McKee was released after posting a $5,000 bond.
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