A woman linked by DNA to the death of a baby known as “Baby Doe” found at Marian Heights Academy at the Monastery Immaculate Conception in Ferdinand back in 1987 was sentenced Thursday in Dubois Circuit Court.
Charged with Murder and Voluntary Manslaughter, she pled guilty to Voluntary Manslaughter as part of a plea deal, resulting in a six-year suspended sentence and six years of supervised probation, transferred to her home state.
She must also complete mental health treatment.
Prosecutor Beth Schroeder noted the woman was 16 and a student living in the academy dormitory at the time of the unintended pregnancy and 17 at birth.
Schroeder stated that incarceration decades later would not serve justice.
She says the mother has carried this secret for nearly 40 years and will continue to live with it, along with the public scrutiny that has emerged in the court of public opinion.
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