Minnesota woman who left newborn son to die on banks of Mississippi River sentenced to 27 years in prison
A Minnesota woman who admitted to leaving her newborn son to die near the Mississippi River two decades ago has been sentenced to 27 years in prison.
Jennifer Matter, of Belvidere Township outside Red Wing, was sentenced Friday for second-degree murder, CBS Minnesota reported. She pleaded guilty in January to leaving the baby on the banks of the river in 2003.
She was not arrested until May 10, 2022, after DNA evidence tied her to the boy, authorities said.
"Genetic genealogy and rapid DNA testing were both employed to develop a break in the case and then quickly confirm the identity of the babies' mother," Bureau of Criminal Apprehension superintendent Drew Evans said after Matter was arrested. "These kinds of scientific advances that can aid investigations are happening all the time. That is why it is so important to never give up on any unsolved case."
Prosecutors have said the DNA evidence also links Matter to a baby girl found dead by the Mississippi in 1999 but she has not been charged in that case.
According to the criminal complaint, Matter said she hoped someone would find the baby boy alive after she left him.
Teenagers found the child's body on Dec. 7, 2003, in Frontenac on the shore of Lake Pepin, a body of water on the Mississippi River.
In 2021, the Minnesota BCA Crime Lab was able to determine and identify the biological father of the infant found in 1999, and worked to establish that Matter was a person of interest. Investigators interviewed her in late April, and she denied knowing anything about either case. When they sampled her DNA sample on a search warrant last week, she again denied knowing about either baby.
On a third interview with investigators, Matter told them that back in 1999, she was "in and out of jail, drinking too much, doing a lot of stupid things," and that she didn't know she was pregnant until she started bleeding while on the way to drop off two other kids at school and daycare.
She said she then gave birth at home in her bathroom and "freaked out" when she saw the baby was born "blue, was not breathing, and was not crying." She said she knew she should've sought help but that "her mind was not there." She wrapped the baby and, possibly a day later, left the baby's body at Bay Point Park in the middle of the night.
She told investigators she didn't remember a second baby, but later said "it was in Frontenac," and said she was "almost positive" she was at a public beach alone when she went into labor. She was "trying to lay low because she had an arrest warrant and believed cops were looking for her." She said she didn't remember if the baby was crying, but said it was breathing fine.
She said she left the baby on the beach before driving away, and said she did not have a plan about leaving the baby in a safe place, but "hoped that someone in the nearby houses would find the baby."