Baby Jane Doe's headstone
Real Name: Unrevealed
Nicknames: Baby Jane Doe
Location: Warner, Oklahoma
Date: November 12, 1991
Case[]
Details: On the afternoon of November 12, 1991, a hunter was near Jake's Lake off Interstate 40 near Warner, Oklahoma, when he noticed a woman and a man on the other side of the lake. He heard the woman scream and then saw the man raise his hand and strike something. After the couple left the area, the hunter went over and found a trash bag. Inside the bag, he was horrified to discover the body of a newborn baby.
The hunter then realized that he had witnessed the woman giving birth and the man beating the infant to death. Next to the bag was a towel and a brick, presumably the murder weapon. After getting over the initial shock, he called authorities. Police began searching for the identity of the baby girl in hopes of catching her killer. In the meantime, the community came together and held a memorial service for the child.
Suspects: The man and woman were both Caucasian and fled in an unidentified car. At the time, the woman was around twenty-years-old, had medium-length brown hair, was 5'5", with a slender build. The man was also around twenty-years-old, was 5'9"-6'0", with a slender build, black shoulder-length hair and a moustache. Since the baby was mixed-race, the man is not believed to be the child's father.
The couple fled the area in a mid-1970s white-on-red Chevrolet.
Extra Notes:
- The case was featured as a part of a Special Alert in the December 18, 1991 episode.
- It was excluded from FilmRise release of the series.
Penny Anita Lowry, Baby Doe's mother
Results: Unresolved. In 2009, DNA evidence from the crime scene was placed into CODIS. It was matched to a thirty-seven-year-old Virginia woman named Penny Anita Lowry, who was determined to be the baby's mother. She was placed in the database after she was convicted of wire fraud. At the time of the murder, she was a nineteen-year-old college student at Connors State College and went by the name Penny Varnell. She had been interviewed shortly afterwards; another student told police that she had looked pregnant, but had gone away and came back telling everyone that she had surgery to lose weight. When questioned, however, she denied being pregnant.
After the DNA results came back in July 2009, Lowry was arrested. She then confessed to killing her child. In October 2010, she pleaded guilty to being an accessory to the murder. She was sentenced to forty-five years in prison. For reasons unknown, she has refused to name the man who helped commit the murder. DNA testing also identified the child's father as an African-American man living in California; however, he is not considered a suspect because the male attacker was described as Caucasian.
Links:
- Baby's Birth, Killing Seen By Hunter, Sheriff Says - November 14, 1991
- Community Plans Rites For Baby - November 19, 1991
- $1,000 Reward Offered In Baby Slaying Case - December 4, 1991
- A Year Later, Hunt For Killer Of Baby Jane Doe Continuing - November 12, 1992
- One year later, hunt for killer of baby Jane Doe continues - November 19, 1992
- Officials haunted by cold cases - May 17, 2008
- Oklahoma mom charged in baby's 1991 death - July 21, 2009
- 18 years later, Oklahoma woman faces charge in newborn's killing - July 22, 2009
- Bizarre cold case solved - July 22, 2009
- Remembering Baby Jane - July 30, 2009
- Lowry faces murder trial - February 4, 2010
- Murder trial moved to September - June 10, 2010
- Trial date set for woman charged in '91 murder - June 14, 2010
- Woman pleads guilty in baby's death - October 28, 2010
- Mother of baby killed in 1991 pleads guilty to accessory count - October 28, 2010
- Tulsa woman sentenced in 1991 death of her infant daughter - October 28, 2010
- Accused baby killer sentenced to 45 years - December 30, 2010
- Baby Jane Doe at Find a Grave