WINONA, Minn. — Key evidence is missing against the Winona woman accused of killing her newborn baby in 2011 and leaving the body in the Mississippi River, her attorney said. The attorney for Jennifer Baechle told Judge Nancy Buyendorp that prosecutors failed to include the complete report of the autopsy that it was impossible to determine whether the baby emerged from the womb still born or alive. Baechle, age 43, is charged with second-degree manslaughter in the death of “Baby Angel” — the name that Sheriff Dave Brand came up with for the lifeless infant found in a bag with a collection of angel figurines. The missing autopsy report, complete and unabridged, could be key in his defense for Baechle, said her attorney, Kurt Knuesel of Winona. The criminal complaint quotes pathologist Ross Reichard but doesn’t include Reichard’s full document. Knuesel said he fears that prosecutors have lost or destroyed the complete autopsy report, which he called “the linchpin” in their case against Baechle also potentially key for him to develop a defense.
