Nearly half a century after a newborn was found discarded at a North Carolina landfill, investigators have identified the child’s mother, closing one of the county’s longest-running cold cases.
According to the New York Post, authorities say Cathy McKee, 69, was arrested this week after modern DNA testing linked her to the infant discovered in a trash bag in 1979 at a Columbus County dump.
The breakthrough followed a renewed investigation launched more than a year ago, when detectives revisited preserved evidence using updated forensic techniques.
That testing ultimately tied McKee, who lives in Whiteville, to the case, according to the Columbus County Sheriff’s Office.
“For 47 years, this baby girl’s life – however brief – mattered to the investigators who first held that case in their hands and to every detective who reviewed it after,” Sheriff Bill Rogers said. “She was never just evidence, never just a report. She was a child, and she was never forgotten.”
Officials did not disclose the baby’s cause of death.
McKee was charged with felony concealing the birth of a child, a decision Rogers said was based on the statutes in effect at the time of the crime.
He noted the legal outcome could have been different under the current law, suggesting more serious charges might apply if the same circumstances occurred today.
Investigators said the original probe in 1979 had exhausted all available leads before going cold. The careful preservation of evidence by early deputies proved critical decades later when DNA technology advanced enough to generate new leads.
“Because of the compassion and foresight of those original deputies who preserved the evidence so carefully, and because of the determination of our detectives … who have worked tirelessly on this investigation, we are finally able to give this child what she deserved all along — the truth,” Rogers said.
News of the arrest stunned residents in McKee’s neighborhood. Neighbor Sue Tyson said she struggled to process the allegations against someone she believed she knew.
“I couldn’t hardly believe it,” Tyson told local media. “That’s terrible. I only know her just from living on the same road that she lives on, but I always thought of her as a real nice person.”
McKee was released after posting a $5,000 bond as the case proceeds.
