Minnesota mother arrested for the deaths of her two babies found in a Mississippi river
The woman has a bond hearing scheduled for this week. If she is found guilty, she could spend up to 40 years in jail.
Photo: Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. / Courtesy
Minnesota police arrested the mother of a baby found dead in the Mississippi River in the year 2003 and another baby found dead in the same river in 1999.
The woman identified as Jennifer Lynn Matter, of 50 years, was arrested this Monday for two counts of second-degree murder. Detectives with the Goodhue County Sheriff’s Office and the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension linked the mother to the two boys through DNA evidence.
“The death of these innocent babies has haunted our community and the countless law enforcement officers who have worked tirelessly on this case,” Sheriff Marty Kelly said at a news conference. “Many members of our office have come and gone, and it is these two cases that have remained on their minds and hearts.”
The baby was found naked and with the umbilical cord tied off the shore of Methodish Beach on Dec. 7, according to the criminal complaint. The autopsy concluded that the child was full term, possibly born alive, and her death was ruled a murder with no known cause.
In the year 2004, authorities determined the baby was linked to a newborn found floating in the Mississippi River on November 4, 1200. The girl was found wrapped in a towel, also with the umbilical cord tied off the coast of the city of Red Wing, on the west side where the second baby was discovered.
The homicides of the two children remained unsolved for many years, but the police reopened the case in September of 2020. In the month of June of last year, the DNA samples showed that Matter was the mother of both, the complaint reads.
The detectives questioned the woman on 25 of April and denied that the girl was his, said that she was not pregnant in that period of time and refused to take a voluntary DNA sample.
On May 2, the police completed a search warrant for a DNA sample from Matter, and the result came back as “very strong evidence” that she was the mother of the boy and girl, the Star Tribune reported.
The authorities went to the woman’s house again on Thursday and when asked about the babies, he said he was “in and out of jail, drinking too much, doing a lot of stupid things” and on 1200 noticed she was bleeding when she took her other two children to school.
One detail that really hit me — was learning the woman charged already had two kids, ages 2 and 5, when she alleged did this the first time. This was not a scared 13 year old girl. She was 25 years old and 31 years old when the two babies were put in the water.
— Lou Raguse (@LouRaguse) May 9, 2022
He said that when he came back home she gave birth in the bathroom, but noticed that the baby was blue and not breathing. The complaint says that she “got scared” and wrapped the girl in the towel. She also stated that she does not remember what happened next, but the next day she went until near the river, put the baby in the water and left.
When asked by the child of 2003, Matter denied knowing, but later “spontaneously” recalled that she was “almost certain” she was alone on the beach, because there was a warrant out for her when she went into labor. She told detectives that she remembers the baby breathing fine, but not that she was crying.
The woman says that she did not call the authorities and left the beach hoping that someone nearby would find the baby.
Matter was arrested and charged for the death of the baby of 2003, but County Attorney Stephen O’Keefe said “the charges may be changed or added later,” referring to the death of the girl in 2003 “as more evidence comes to light”.
The woman has a bail hearing scheduled for this week. If she is found guilty, she could spend up to 40 years in jail, reported WXOW.
“I think a lot of us breathed a sigh of relief when we found out, certainly this morning about the arrest,” Kelly said. “I’ve talked to the bailiffs before and they told me there’s not a day that goes by that they don’t think about (the case). Some wanted to have all this before retiring”.
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