A 29-year-old woman was arrested Thursday in the death of her child more than four years after Florida detectives started investigating the discovery of the newborn floating in the Atlantic Ocean.
The case began on June 1, 2018, when an off-duty firefighter found a baby in Boynton Beach Inlet in Palm Beach County, police said. Detectives checked on more than 700 babies born during that time to find the child's parents but were unable to generate any leads.
"The men and women in law enforcement always think they're tough and they've seen it all," Palm Beach County Sheriff Rich Bradshaw said. "But I guarantee you when you see an infant — a newborn infant, floating in the ocean that somebody has discarded like a piece of trash — it tugs at your heart."
Forensic specialists created a profile for the newborn, whom authorities named "Baby June," and entered her DNA in CODIS, the national DNA database. No matches populated initially, but a potential relative appeared as a match years later, Palm Beach County officials said at a news conference Thursday.
The match helped connect the case to a potential father, who cooperated with a police investigation, Palm Beach County Sheriff's Detective Brittany Christoffel said.
"He knew nothing about the baby," Christoffel said. "He knew that he had a girlfriend around that time that told him that she had been pregnant but ... was thinking she perhaps had an abortion. He ended up being the father."
The interview led police to Arya Singh, whom they confirmed to be Baby June's mother by testing DNA through a piece of garbage, police said.
"We decided to just build this case against the mother without notifying her at all," Christoffel said. "We were able to get search warrants for phone records for GPS data location."
Singh was taken into custody Thursday, Christoffel said, and told officials in an interview that she had not been aware she was pregnant before she gave birth on May 30, 2018. A second DNA sample taken from Singh confirmed her to be Baby June's mother.
"She said that when the baby was born, she wasn't sure if the baby was alive or dead. ... By the time the baby went into the inlet, she was already deceased," Christoffel said.
Officials believe Singh acted alone, and she is the sole suspect. Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave Aronberg said the state plans to charge her with first-degree murder.
"Because it's now a pending case, that's about all I could say right now," Aronberg said. "But I want to thank Sheriff Bradshaw and his amazing team. ... They just continue to do outstanding work using advanced technologies to be able to hold wrongdoers accountable for their actions here in our county. We're proud to be a part of that."
County inmate records show Singh was booked into jail at 10:41 a.m. Thursday. She is expected to have a first appearance in court Friday.
It is unclear whether Singh has retained an attorney. A phone call to her family was not immediately returned Thursday.