Authorities said this week that DNA collected from a soda bottle has allegedly tied a Massachusetts woman to the 1985 death of her newborn son, whose body was discovered in the woods by a father and son out hunting rabbits.
Dianne Curry Peck, 59, was arraigned Tuesday and entered a not guilty plea to a murder charge connected to the death of her infant son, long identified only as Mansfield, Massachusetts’ “Baby Boy Doe.”
“Few cases are more heartbreaking than one involving a newborn baby, allegedly abandoned and left to die in the woods by his mother, deprived of the care, love and protection every child deserves,” FBI Boston Special Agent-in-Charge Ted Docks said outside the courthouse. “For 41 years, this child was known simply as Baby Boy Doe. He entered this world with limitless promise, but was denied the most basic right to live.”
FBI Boston Special Agent-in-Charge Ted Docks speaks with reporters outside a courthouse Tuesday regarding the case against Dianne Curry Peck. (FBI Boston)
The baby’s body was found on Jan. 26, 1985, after a father and son spotted footprints in the snow. According to WCVB, they first believed they had come across a doll before realizing it was a naked infant on the ground.
A medical examiner later concluded the newborn had been born alive and died shortly afterward.
“It was naked, lying on its back; the umbilical cord was still attached to the baby,” Kenneth Martin, who at the time was working as a Massachusetts State Police trooper assigned to the Bristol County District Attorney’s Office, told the outlet.
Boston 25 News reported that the Mansfield Police Department and former New England Patriots quarterback Steve Grogan helped cover the cost of the infant’s funeral.
The case went cold until Bristol County investigators reopened it in 2022, partnering with the FBI and state authorities.
The grave of the “Baby Boy Doe” of Mansfield, Mass., the infant son of Dianne Curry Peck, 59, who gave birth to the child in 1985, before allegedly abandoning him, authorities said. (FBI Boston)
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Using forensic genetic genealogy, investigators analyzed the baby’s DNA, which eventually led them to Peck.
DNA recovered from a soda bottle taken from her trash ultimately linked her to the child, authorities said.
At the time of the birth, Peck was a 17-year-old student at Mansfield High School. She allegedly admitted to investigators that she had given birth to a child in the back seat of her ex-boyfriend’s car, Boston 25 reported.
She claimed she gave the baby to him because he said he knew someone who would adopt the infant. Peck told investigators she believed she had given birth to a girl and never spoke to her ex-boyfriend again. He died in 2020, according to the FBI.
Dianne Curry Peck, 59, appeared in Bristol County Superior Court on Tuesday in Fall River, Mass. (Google Maps)
Prosecutors also noted there is no evidence that anyone — including Peck’s ex-boyfriend — knew she was pregnant, according to the news outlet.
Peck allegedly told police she gave birth on Jan. 20, 1985, but prosecutors argued in court that the timeline is inconsistent with the condition of the baby’s body and the freezing temperatures at the time.
According to a medical examiner, the infant had likely been in the woods for only about 12 hours before being discovered.
News Agency has reached out to the Bristol County District Attorney’s Office and Peck’s attorney.
