Grave marker from 2013. Community donations went toward an angel adorned remembrance at Woodlawn Cemetery. About 150 mourners attended a graveside ceremony.

Warrant seeks DNA swab from Winona woman

WINONA Minn. – With 21st-century genetic testing, Mark Dungy believes he has identified the mother a newborn infant found floating in the Mississippi River 13-1/2 years ago. Dungy, chief Winona County sheriff’s investigator, obtained a search warrant for tissue or blood samples that conclusively could solve the so-called Baby Angel case —  a cold case that never quite cooled for Dungy or Sheriff Ron Ganrude or retired Sheriff Dave Brand. Recent developments in the case:

> A year ago Dung yasked a non-profit genetic genealogy company, Firebird Forensics Group, to find match for Baby Angel’s DNA profile.

> This led to a potential match to a 41-year-old Winona woman, now with two young children.

> Dungy twice reached out to the woman for a DNA swab. She was uncooperative. The woman stated she first wanted to research Firebird Forensics Group. A week later, when asked again, she had not gotten around to it — in effect: “Don’t call me, I’ll call you.”

> An attorney for the woman directed that all future sheriff’s communication should directed to to the law firm  rather than the woman.

> Dungy went to a trash bin, awaiting for pick-ip outside the woman’s house, and recovered a menstrual pad.

> The lab at the state Bureau if Criminal Apprehension found a potential match. The Bureau noted, however, that “discarded samples are not considered known samples for direct comparison.”

> With the BCA’s potential match, a Winona judge agreed there was sufficient evidence for a search warrant.

Gravestone

“Baby Angel was named for the tiny porcelain angels tucked in the bag in which she was found. The newborn was discovered floating in the Mississippi River six miles south of Winona on Labor Day 20l1, and the tragedy of her death has lingered over the years among all the heats she touched. More than 150 people gathered to mourn the child they had bever met. The investigation of her death is ongoing by the Winona County sheriff. God bless all he Baby Angels out there in the world.”

Mother: What we know

Autopsy. May have been an unassisted birth. Amateur severance of umbilical cord. No natural and inflicted defects.Several fractures on the front and side of skull but no visible bruising. She was full term and seven pounds.

Mother’s caring touches. Found swaddled under a green T-shirt inside two plastic bags. Four small angel figurines in the bag. Also a seeing-eye bracelet.

Dungy. Sergeant of investigations with Winona County sheriff’s office. Earlier police chief in Lewiston, where he gained a no-nonsense reputation. Forensics consultant with the Crescent private detective agency in Rochester. Member of Minnesota Crimes against Children Task Force.