Officials exhume grave of newborn, found dead in 1989
By Jason Arndt
Staff Writer
Authorities believe a person who may be connected to the 1989 death of a newborn boy in the Town of Paris could still be in the area, watching the story unfold, according to the Kenosha County Sheriff’s Department.
The announcement comes after the first crime-related exhumation in county history on Thursday, taking more than three hours to complete.
“This is something that our department has never done and it is not something that is done very often,” said Sgt. Eric Klinkhammer of the Sheriff’s Department. “In Kenosha County, for criminal purposes, we have not exhumed a body as a Sheriff Department.”
Baby John Doe had been found underneath the Des Plaines River Bridge by trappers, just east of Highway 45 near Highway N in November 1989 and, according to a press release issued that year, the boy reportedly weighed seven pounds and was 21 inches when killed.
The death sparked an emotional plea from then-Sheriff Allan K. Kehl, who challenged the community to find the mother or acquaintance with knowledge of the situation.
“If anyone knows of a neighbor, co-worker, or anyone who was pregnant and due to deliver in late October or early November, and is no longer pregnant and no longer has the child, please call the Kenosha County Sheriff’s Department,” the 1989 release stated.
However, despite the plea, the investigation found its way into the detective bureau files, receiving periodic reviews and placement on the Kenosha County Cold Case website.
The website drew a hit recently, according to Klinkhammer, who stated a person contacted the Sheriff’s Department about a year ago.
“We put our cold cases on our website and we received a tip from somebody that thought this case was solved,” Klinkhammer stated at the news conference. “We received information from that person that led us to the person of interest.”
The tip, he said, was strong enough for authorities to dig away at gravesite at St. John’s Cemetery in the Town of Randall for more than three hours on a humid Thursday morning.
“It is a good enough tip to get us to this point,” said Klinkhammer, who confirmed the person of interest involved might still be in the area.
“I would assume that they are watching,” he said. “We think that person is (in the area), yes.”
Following Thursday’s exhumation, the remains will be examined by Dr. Rick Snow, a forensic anthropologist at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children at the Kenosha County Medical Examiner’s Office.
From there, the University of North Texas will receive the remains, where they will extract DNA from the infant.
The process, Klinkhammer said, “could take months.”
The full story will appear in the Aug. 12 print editions of the Standard Press and Westine Report.
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