A Massachusetts woman is accused of abandoning her newborn baby in a Maine gravel pit where the infant was born nearly four decades ago, authorities said Tuesday.
Lee Ann Daigle, 58, was arrested Monday outside her home in Lowell after a grand jury indicted her on one count of murder, Maine State Police said in a news release.
Authorities say Daigle gave birth in sub-zero temperatures at the gravel pit in Frenchville, near the Canadian border, and left the baby there, the release said.
A dog found the newborn's body on Dec. 7, 1985, and carried it 700 feet to its owner’s home, authorities said. Investigators tracked the dog’s path back to the pit and found where the baby had been born and abandoned.
"This case was the culmination of decades worth of investigative work from dozens of now retired and current detectives who never gave up finding answers and justice for Baby Jane Doe," the agency said.
Advances in DNA technology and genetic genealogy allowed investigators to identify Daigle, according to police.
Daigle waived extradition and was brought to Maine on Monday morning, the police statement said. She was being held in Aroostook County Jail.
It wasn't immediately clear if she has a lawyer to speak on her behalf.