What is known is that the child was Caucasian and weighed 6 ½ pounds. Her body was dumped near a boat ramp at the park’s Spring Lake. An autopsy showed air was present in her lungs indicating she was most likely born alive. Bruising around her mouth could have been caused from someone suffocating her, the autopsy said.
Other evidence showed that the birth was abrupt and likely caused by eruption of the mother’s uterus. Authorities believe it was a painful birth.
While the investigation was going full bore, the community named her “Baby Sarah” and gave her a proper burial with a multi-denominational ceremony at Mueller Hill Cemetery. Her grave is adorned with angel statuettes and colorful artificial flowers. Someone still watches out for Baby Sarah.
“A lot of people took the news like it was their own child,” he said.
Near the playground at Pinckneyville City Park a monument bearing her name sets. The little girl who no one knew touched a lot of lives. Perhaps no one more so than Plumlee.
“There are not too many days that go by that I don’t think about this case,” Plumlee said. “The biggest think I want to know is ‘why did this happen?’”
Plumlee can’t say much about the case because it is still open; although the trail went cold long ago.
He agreed with the medical examiner’s report that the birth was abrupt. He also believes that the mother had not intended on abandoning the child.
“Something happened to mother; something traumatic. It was a fast birth,” he said. “I think she intended to keep the baby but there were others involved. I think a lot of people know about it.”
But Plumlee has yet to find any of those people even after tracking down dozens of leads that took as far away as Oklahoma and had him gathering DNA from suspects.
“I believe it is someone fairly local; within 40-50 miles of the park,” he said.
When the news broke of Baby Sarah’s discovery the leads began to flood into the department. So many in fact that an extra phone line was added to handle the calls. The volume of them had Plumlee optimistic that the case would be solved in short order. But the leads proved to be dead-ends and as time went on the phones stopped ringing.
“They say a case starts to go cold after the first 24 hours,” he said. “After a week and nothing, we were getting concerned.”
Plumlee said he still puts cameras out at the cemetery around the time of the anniversary of Baby Sarah’s death, April 2, hoping someone involved in her death might show up to mourn her.
“The one year we didn’t, someone had left something there,” he said.
Plumlee said no one involved in her death is coming forward because they fear the consequences.
“I think they are scared to death they are going to be charged with murder,” he said, adding he can’t say what charges might be brought against them.
The case has become personal to Plumlee. As he contemplates retirement he believes it would be his crowning professional achievement to solve it. He isn’t optimistic that it’s going to happen.
“It will probably be the one case I never solve,” he said.
