Inset: Anuradha Manukonda (Plain City Police Department). Background: The Plain City, Ohio, street where the defendant discarded her stillborn daughter (Google Maps).
An Ohio woman will not serve time in prison after her infant daughter was found dead inside a garbage truck, authorities announced recently.
Anuradha Manukonda, 27, pleaded guilty in August to one count of gross abuse of a corpse.
Last week, Madison County Common Pleas Court Judge Eamon Costello sentenced her to 90 days in jail and five years of community control, the Ohio equivalent of probation.
The Plain City Police Department addressed the case’s resolution in a press release, saying Manukonda had been “finally sentenced for the only crime that could be proven.”
The investigation began on June 16, 2023, when the infant’s remains were discovered “in the back of a garbage truck” on Bluestem Lane in Plain City, a small community roughly 20 miles northwest of Columbus.
“Our community was saddened, shocked, and devastated at the discovery,” police said. The child was named Madison Baby Doe, and more than 100 people attended a funeral service held soon afterward to remember and honor her.
As detectives pursued what police described as an “extensive and exhaustive investigation,” they focused on a home on the same street where the baby had been found “thrown into the garbage like other household trash,” according to the department.
Authorities said a combination of forensic work, advanced DNA collection and analysis, persistent investigative efforts and “a little bit of luck” led them to identify Manukonda. Investigators determined that she occasionally visited the Bluestem Lane residence.
According to a sentencing memorandum obtained by The Columbus Dispatch, Manukonda’s attorney said she was visiting relatives at the home when she unexpectedly gave birth to a stillborn baby.
The defense memorandum stated that Manukonda did not know she was pregnant because of a medical condition affecting her reproductive system.
Her attorney said she panicked after the birth and put the infant in the garbage.
At the time the baby was found, investigators said they would not be able to determine the precise cause of death.
“With the final chapter written, our community now has a degree of closure,” the police department said. “Two dates on the calendar, separated by 1240 days, shows our unwavering commitment to Madison Baby Doe and our community. We will always remember that horrific day in the summer of 2023 and we will NEVER forget Madison Baby Doe.”
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