Forty years later she left her newborn baby to die in the forest New Jersey area On Christmas Eve, Mary Katherine Snyder Krumlich was living a suburban life in South Carolina with her husband and sons, social media shows.
But earlier this month, the Morris County Prosecutor’s Office announced that Krumlich, 57, was sentenced to one year in prison for murder in the death of an infant named “Baby Mary” during its decades-long investigation.
Mendham Township Police Chief Ross Johnson told Fox News Digital that a DNA profile was established for the child in 2014 and “a lot of great police work” led to the resolution of the problem. decades old cold case,
The prosecutor’s office said Krumlich was just 17 when she abandoned the baby, its umbilical cord still intact, wrapped inside a towel in a plastic bag, which was found by two young boys playing in the river and Informed the police. was death ruled a massacre Police said that after investigation it was found that the girl was already dead before she was kept in the bag.
Mary Snyder Crumlich, 57, had moved to South Carolina from Mendham Township, NJ, where she was living with her family when she was arrested and charged with murder in the death of her infant daughter on Christmas Eve 1984. Was. (Kath Snyder-Crumlich/Facebook)
Johnson told Fox News Digital that the baby’s identity is not known, but she was baptized by the Rev. Michael Drury at St. Joseph’s Church. Every year on Christmas Eve, officers will visit the grave for a memorial service, Johnson said.
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“It became part of our annual tradition. We didn’t want Baby Mary to be forgotten,” Johnson said Friday. “(it was) such a terrible act, truly senseless in every sense of the word. We wanted to make sure he was remembered every Christmas Eve. …This is completely unnecessary. Even in the 80s there were a lot of resources in our area. It definitely didn’t need to go down that way.”
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Prosecutors said the Rev. Michael Drury, chaplain for the Mendham Township Police Department, named the infant Jane Doe “Mary” and baptized her. Each year, a memorial service was held at his grave on Christmas Eve. (Chris Pedota/NorthJersey.com/USA TODAY Network)
When a DNA profile was established for the child, her case was reopened Morris County Cold Case Unit, With the help of a genealogist, detectives searched for families living in the area who had daughters between the ages of 16 and 19 and whose racial and ethnic backgrounds matched the girls, Johnson said.
“There was never any belief that this was some random guy from out of town,” Johnson said. “The location was so specific that it must have been someone from that area.”
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Detectives interviewed dozens of families and discovered numerous tips and theories. Ultimately, they found a match for the DNA of Baby Mary, a man from the area who died by suicide years earlier in 2009 or 2010, Johnson said.
“We firmly believe that he had no knowledge of this. That’s why his name is not listed anywhere,” Johnson said. “We had no evidence that he had any idea that he was the father of that particular child, let alone that Krumlich was even pregnant.
“If they had known, they probably wouldn’t have done it,” he said. “Maybe if she had a child, if the child didn’t die, the story would be different.”
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Through his family, he focused on Krumlich, who had moved to the suburbs. Columbia, South Carolina.
On Facebook, he is depicted attending his son’s baseball games and weddings. Later, she posted pictures of herself taking care of her grandchildren.
“I can’t imagine living with something like that. There will be consequences.”
He was arrested on April 23 last year and charged as a juvenile due to his age at the time of the crime. Had he been convicted as an adult, the prosecutor’s office said, it would have been charged with second-degree murder.
Law enforcement was unable to name him until his indictment earlier this month, in accordance with state laws for juvenile defendants. On April 3, Krumlich began a 364-day sentence at the Morris County Correctional Facility, Johnson said.
It was not immediately clear who represented Krumlich in his case.
Johnson said he hoped Krumlich would “find a way out” after his prison sentence.
He said, “I can’t imagine living with something like that. There will be consequences.” “It’s nice to see her move on with her life, (but) she lives with it to some extent every day. I’m happy, even for her, that we were able to bring closure to it. The reality is. That she went into the woods a newborn baby did this, and we felt it was very important to bring this to justice.”
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Johnson said he was “left with more questions than answers” even after the case was resolved.
“I really hope that one day when she gets out of jail the whole story comes out,” Johnson said. “But I don’t think that will ever happen.”
