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DNA reveals parents of baby found dead 27 years ago near Lisbon

Nearly 30 years after a farmer near Lisbon discovered a dead infant in his barn — puzzling law enforcement for decades in trying to figure out who the newborn was and how she got there — new genealogical tests reveal the baby was his great granddaughter.



Cedar County Sheriff Warren Wethington told The Gazette on Monday that his office and the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation have been working on the 1996 cold case for two years after receiving genetic genealogy results that identified the parents — who were both teens at the time.


Clair Wilson lived on the farm with his son, Tim; Tim’s wife, Debbie; and their son, Luke. who was 15 at the time. Clair Wilson found the infant, wrapped in a plastic shopping bag and concealed in a garbage bag, the morning of Nov. 10, 1996, in the barn at 14 Highway 30, about a mile east of Lisbon. The barn was used to store machinery.





The DCI issued a news release Saturday that, after all these years, finally revealed the parents’ identities: Luke Dean Wilson and Samantha Light Hope. He was 15 and she was 16 at the time, and both are now 43.


The DCI asked people who had information about the case to come forward and call the Cedar County Sheriff’s Office at (563) 886-2121


“Right now we are having trouble proving if the child was born alive or not,” Wethington said.

A barn where the body of a newborn female was discovered in November 1996 still stands along Highway 30 east of Lisbon. The girl, known all this time as Baby Jane Lincoln, is buried at County Home Cemetery in rural Cedar County near Tipton. (Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette) A barn where the body of a newborn female was discovered in November 1996 still stands along Highway 30 east of Lisbon. The girl, known all this time as Baby Jane Lincoln, is buried at County Home Cemetery in rural Cedar County near Tipton. (Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette)
An autopsy at the time concluded that the baby was alive when she was born. But that method now is not considered reliable. Officials are now trying to determine whether the baby was born dead or was abandoned live and died of exposure.


“I’m hoping it didn’t happen that way,” Wethington said. “I hoped it was just two kids who were scared and didn’t know what to do.”


Luke Wilson, who still lives in the area, has cooperated with authorities, Wethington said. But Light Hope, who lives out of state, hasn’t been cooperative, he said.


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Attempts Monday by The Gazette to reach the two were unsuccessful.


As part of a cold case grant received in 2010, DNA testing was conducted an a sample from the baby and a genealogist with a DNA analysis company helped investigators create family trees to narrow down the possible parents, Wethington said. Luke Wilson provided a DNA sample, but in order to match Light Hope, investigators had to use DNA from a sibling.


Wethington said if the teens would have come forward at the time, the mystery wouldn’t have affected so many lives. “Hopefully, now the baby will be given a (proper) name,” he said.


Since shortly after her tiny body was discovered, the girl was known only as “Baby Jane Lincoln,” since the barn she was found in was located on old Lincoln Highway.


The infant was buried near Tipton, and the former sheriff took up a collection for a headstone.

The gravestone for Baby Jane Lincoln is pictured Monday at County Home Cemetery in rural Cedar County near Tipton.  Flowers, a plastic rabbit and other items have been placed next to the marker. The body of the newborn was found in November 1996 in a barn at a farmstead east of Lisbon. Investigators, who this weekend released the names of the girl’s parents after DNA tests were conducted, still are working the death investigation case. (Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette) The gravestone for Baby Jane Lincoln is pictured Monday at County Home Cemetery in rural Cedar County near Tipton. Flowers, a plastic rabbit and other items have been placed next to the marker. The body of the newborn was found in November 1996 in a barn at a farmstead east of Lisbon. Investigators, who this weekend released the names of the girl’s parents after DNA tests were conducted, still are working the death investigation case. (Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette)
That sheriff, Keith Whitlatch, said Monday that investigators didn’t have any suspects when the baby was found, but suspected she might have been left by someone from out of town who was passing through.


Frank Heubner, who was the pastor of the Cedar Street Baptist Church in Tipton at the time the infant was found and officiated her funeral, said Monday he wanted the baby’s parents to know that God loves them as much as he loves their daughter.


“What would have been the circumstances that people would have been so desperate that they would have done something like that?” Heubner asked. “I think that was the real question that a lot of the people, at least in my church, had on their minds. There are resources and there are places people could go.”


Heubner didn’t know the Wilson family, but was asked to the perform the funeral by the director of the funeral home, who he was good friends with.


“It was just a complete shock and a complete mystery. … Nothing was ever made public as far as what they suspected,” Heubner said.

 
Right or wrong, it appears that her world is about to be turned upside down.

FWIW, there is no statute of limitations in Iowa for bringing murder charges.
Sounds like murder charge is the only thing they could be charged with today because it happened so long ago.
You also have to remember there was no safe haven around at that time.

What I don’t get is how no one could tell that Luke would have been lying about being the father.
Pretty sure it’s easy to tell when a 15 year old is lying. I’d be curious to know if the parents of both people knew what happened.
I’d do the same thing to protect my child though as well.
 
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I don’t think we should be forced, or submit upon birth, our genetic fingerprint, for the authorities to use to investigate future or past crimes.
I agree with this, but thus far no one is being forced to submit their DNA. If you committed an unsolved crime and are dumb enough to submit your DNA to a public database, that is on you. But typically their are solved because a cousin or aunt or someone else you're related to submitted their DNA voluntarily. And they have the right to submit their own DNA if they want. Why should you have the right to control how someone else uses their DNA? And if the police use a relative's DNA as a starting point for finding the person responsible, that's just bad luck for them.
 
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I agree with this. But if you committed an unsolved crime and are dumb enough to submit your DNA to a public database, that is on you.
Most of these crimes have been solved by someone RELATED TO the perp who submitted their DNA.

That enabled prosecutors to trim down the list of potential suspects to a few hundred, or a few dozen. It's how the CA killer was found, decades later.
 
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Most of these crimes have been solved by someone RELATED TO the perp who submitted their DNA.

That enabled prosecutors to trim down the list of potential suspects to a few hundred, or a few dozen. It's how the CA killer was found, decades later.
Yeah, that's pretty much what I said in the rest of the post, but I've edited for clarity.
 
I’m going to guess this goes nowhere. It sounds like it’ll be very difficult to prove that the baby was born alive rather than stillborn. Without that, there’s not much they can do.
 
I agree with this, but thus far no one is being forced to submit their DNA. If you committed an unsolved crime and are dumb enough to submit your DNA to a public database, that is on you. But typically their are solved because a cousin or aunt or someone else you're related to submitted their DNA voluntarily. And they have the right to submit their own DNA if they want. Why should you have the right to control how someone else uses their DNA? And if the police use a relative's DNA as a starting point for finding the person responsible, that's just bad luck for them.
Why should the police have free access to the private DNA database? If they have reason to suspect a crime, get a court order and request the info.
Do you think the police should have unlimited access to your phone records? Texts? Browsing history?
If it solves one crime, does that make it all worth it for you?
 
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I’m going to guess this goes nowhere. It sounds like it’ll be very difficult to prove that the baby was born alive rather than stillborn. Without that, there’s not much they can do.
The Sherriff undermined the entire case by saying this: "“Right now we are having trouble proving if the child was born alive or not,” Wethington said."
All the mother has to do is say the baby was born dead, and she didn't know what to do.
 
I guess I don’t get this line of thought. We all want a safer and more secure environment. If police use this as tool to catch criminals so be it. If you have done nothing wrong you have nothing to worry about. Only people who should be concerned are the criminals.
100% agree, what ever we need to do to be safer and get bad people off the streets I'm all for. I could care less about people whining about their privacy.
 
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They don't.

They submit a DNA sample, and pay the fee like anyone else does. And, really no reason they should not have access as anyone else does.
Well, in this case they submitted the dna of a sibling of the mother. Which they either collected surreptitiously, or the sibling was actively helping to put their relative in jail.
These are private companies, but I guess they'll run a sample they get from anyone for anyone?
I could grab your coffee cup and send in a sample, and have your genetic profile I guess.
 
Please turn over your browser history to the cops. We need to be sure you haven't done anything illegal.
Whatever it takes.

I don't have to, they probably already have it.

What you said is different than how the DNA database is being used. You can't look at the database to determine if you're doing something wrong. The database is used to locate you if they find your DNA at the scene of a crime.
 
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Maybe China would be a better country for you?
Na I'm good with the good old USA knowing we can catch killers from 40 years ago by following them around and getting the DNA off of the pop can they through in the trash. I love it.
 
Na I'm good with the good old USA knowing we can catch killers from 40 years ago by following them around and getting the DNA off of the pop can they through in the trash. I love it.
Well, maybe someday they'll grab your pop can and put your child or sibling in prison for life.
 
Why should the police have free access to the private DNA database? If they have reason to suspect a crime, get a court order and request the info.
Do you think the police should have unlimited access to your phone records? Texts? Browsing history?
If it solves one crime, does that make it all worth it for you?
DNA is a little different. It's basically a id card. It's like the police search the DOT license database looking for a specific driver. Not reading texts, or listing to calls or seeing who you called. Just and identifier. I wish more US cities/towns would go full Europe and have video cameras all over where police can zoom in and see what's going on and identify criminals. Again, might make ones who commit crimes think twice.
 
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Well, maybe someday they'll grab your pop can and put your child or sibling in prison for life.
If they murdered someone then I guess that's the way it should work. I don't want a family member getting away with some crime just because they are related to me. I'd hate to have one of my kids arrested for a crime, but at the same time I wouldn't want them out there dong bad things to people either.
 
DNA is a little different. It's basically a id card. It's like the police search the DOT license database looking for a specific driver. Not reading texts, or listing to calls or seeing who you called. Just and identifier. I wish more US cities/towns would go full Europe and have video cameras all over where police can zoom in and see what's going on and identify criminals. Again, might make ones who commit crimes think twice.
Identifying criminals isn't the problem... willingness to prosecute is.
 
If they killed someone they should. Why is that so hard to understand?
Did this woman kill that baby? Nobody really knows, but they're about to ruin her life 30 years later due to using this investigation technique. These cases aren't all created equally.
 
Did this woman kill that baby? Nobody really knows, but they're about to ruin her life 30 years later due to using this investigation technique. These cases aren't all created equally.
Ruin her life? She had the chance 30-years ago to step forward and explain what happened. Instead they likely lied to family/friends. The community is still impacted by this all of this years later according to a person I know who lives in town and knows family members of those involved. That doesn't even touch on those in Tipton who raised money and buried her. The most interesting thing to me is knowing that police figured out who they were long ago and that Wilson has been cooperating while the mother has not. Says a lot.
 
Did this woman kill that baby? Nobody really knows, but they're about to ruin her life 30 years later due to using this investigation technique. These cases aren't all created equally.
I have no idea, I'm just glad they are getting to the bottom of it after all this time.
 
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These are private companies, but I guess they'll run a sample they get from anyone for anyone?
That's how private companies work.

They probably require you to identify the source of the sample, so taking someone else's DNA w/o their permission would be a violation of those policies and possibly illegal. When police do it, they are taking DNA legally from a crime scene.
 
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I could grab your coffee cup and send in a sample, and have your genetic profile I guess.
Which likely violates both their terms of service AND existing privacy laws.
So, you could end up in jail or sued for damages for it, if you want.
 
Which likely violates both their terms of service AND existing privacy laws.
So, you could end up in jail or sued for damages for it, if you want.
You just told me the police do this without a warrant. So, perhaps not illegal, unless they are violating the terms of service and existing privacy laws.
 
You just told me the police do this without a warrant.
Why would they need a "warrant" for DNA they have legally obtained from a crime scene?

If they want DNA from someone who is a suspect, they DO need a warrant.

You seriously this dumb?
 
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Why would they need a "warrant" for DNA they have legally obtained from a crime scene?

If they want DNA from someone who is a suspect, they DO need a warrant.

You seriously this dumb?
I'm not talking about crime scene evidence. I'm talking about collecting dna from related parties, without their knowledge or consent.
 
Uh, they already gave it up when submitting it to the DNA databases.
Uh, the police are potentially the ones submitting it to the private database, not the individual.
And, if the private companies are turning that data over to the police, they should tell people that up front, so they know that their private health data, will not remain private.
 
Btw, how terrible of the police to litigate this in public. They haven't pressed charges. There is no ongoing threat to the public. They dropped these names publicly just do damage these people's lives and reputations.
They admit they don't even know if there was a crime committed. Completely reckless and unprofessional.
 
Btw, how terrible of the police to litigate this in public. They haven't pressed charges. There is no ongoing threat to the public. They dropped these names publicly just do damage these people's lives and reputations.
They admit they don't even know if there was a crime committed. Completely reckless and unprofessional.
I do agree that the dropping of the names without charges or clearing them is strange. Again, looking forward to seeing where this goes. But, these people are the ones who created this when they abandoned their baby 30 years ago.
 
Uh, the police are potentially the ones submitting it to the private database, not the individual.
WTAF are you blabbering about now?

Thousands of people voluntarily submit their DNA to Ancestry.com or 23&Me

Law enforcement MAY submit DNA collected at a crime scene to obtain related lineages. LE is NOT submitting DNA from people w/o their consent or a warrant.
 
Btw, how terrible of the police to litigate this in public. They haven't pressed charges. There is no ongoing threat to the public. They dropped these names publicly just do damage these people's lives and reputations.
They admit they don't even know if there was a crime committed. Completely reckless and unprofessional.
Agree with this. This police department is clueless. They put out way too much information into the public on this one.
 
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