Forensic scientist explains DNA technology linking Baby June’s mother to crime

(WSVN) – Arya Singh, the mother of a newborn baby, appeared in court one day after her arrest.

A judge denied the 29-year-old bond, Friday afternoon.

Baby June, a name created by detectives on the case, was found in an inlet in Boynton Beach four and a half years ago.

“It was gut-wrenching to all of us and to the community,” said Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office (PBSO) Captain Steven Stavelli.

With little information, cold case detectives did everything they could to find Baby June’s family and eventually her killer.

That’s where new DNA technology came in.

Julie Sikorsky the forensic science supervisor at the PBSO said they decided to try that technology for the first time and it paid off.

“It was used to solve the Golden State Killer case pilot case,” said Sikorsky. “We went onto a site called family tree DNA, and we actually uploaded Baby June’s profile.”

The team built out a family tree.

“You reverse engineer it,” Sikorsky said. “You find that common relative. You build the tree up to say a grandparent, great-grandparent, or great-great-grandparent, and then you look at all of the tree branches, and you might have to build a few down and find some that actually fit to where might be potential parents for Baby June.”

They found a match to Baby June’s father who had no idea about the baby or what happened, but he did say he had a girlfriend at the time.

“We decided to build this case without notifying her lucky at all,” said PBSO detective Brittany Christoffel. We were able to get search warrants for phone records, for GPS data location. We were lucky to even get that from 4 and a half years ago.

Phone records placed her at the inlet, and online search histories show she looked for stories about the baby’s discovery.

When they arrested her, the mother later confessed to the disturbing crime.

That was when Singh told detectives she gave birth to the baby in a hotel bathroom.

Then kept the baby in a backpack, believing she was dead, and even kept the backpack with her as she attended a class at fau.

“According to the mother, she didn’t know she was pregnant up until the time she gave birth,” said Christoffel. “She said that when the baby was born, she wasn’t sure if the baby was alive or dead. By the time the baby went into the inlet, she was already deceased.”

Detectives hope this case to be the first of many they will be able to solve using DNA technology.

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texasstandard.news contributed to this report.

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