RED WING, Minn. — The Goodhue County Sheriff’s Office launched a $15,000 fund drive to conduct new DNA tests on three babies found floating dead in separate incidents on the Mississippi River over an eight-year period. Veteran sheriff’s investigator Glen Barringer said closure is needed. “I have a picture of all three of them I see every day,” he said. Barrringer is hopeful that a new technology, Parabon Snapshot DNA analysis, can led to the parents through genetic geneology. The cases:
> 1999: A baby girl, wrapped in a towel, found floating near Red Wing.
> 2003: A baby boy found washed ashore on Lake Pepin.
> 2007: A baby girl found in the Treasure Island Casino marina.
Barringer said pre-Parabon Snapshop DNA tests showed that two of the babies shared at least one parent.