Identified! MS - Pascagoula, WhtFem Child 45UFMS "Delta Dawn", 1-3, Dog River @I-10, Dec'82 - Alisha Heinrich

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Still_Seek_Answers said:
It appears that this article gives information that was not released when the baby Doe was found. The child had apparently not eaten all day long.

The grave digger drove west on interstate 10 through a chilly December drizzle. He slowed, peering at a figure laboring along the roadside. He wasn't the only one to spot her. CB radio channels were abuzz that night—Friday the third—with truckers’ reports of a woman carrying what looked like a barefoot, coatless toddler in her arms, walking near the truck scales at the Alabama-Mississippi line. The grave digger felt sorry for her. But in Pascagoula, Mississippi, in 1982, a black man simply didn’t invite a white woman into his vehicle, no matter how miserable the weather. Within days, a small body in a tiny casket would be buried under a donated, nameless stone, and the memory of that night would haunt him. - See more at: http://www.tufts.edu/alumni/magazine/summer2014/features/singing-river.html#sthash.9PrL0GPy.dpuf

Lynn Reuss is taunted by vivid dreams: in them, the woman is a runaway who, without her family’s knowledge, gives birth. She is fleeing something or someone, maybe an abusive partner. “Virgil said that the baby was partially smothered, possibly from being held too tightly. Maybe the mother thought her baby was dead” and, panicked, threw her over the bridge. “Did you know that the child had no food in her stomach, but appeared to be cared for? Another reason why I think the mom fled—no money, no blanket, no shoes or socks on the child, no coat or hat. If she had these things, they were lost somewhere along the way.” - See more at: http://www.tufts.edu/alumni/magazine/summer2014/features/singing-river.html#sthash.DnZiddn9.dpuf
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Also from that article:

The next day, Moore went to the sheriff and the lead detective. “Can me and my wife have that baby?” The Moores signed some papers, and the body was theirs. “Don’t you call her Jane Doe,” his wife scolded. Moore helped pay for a flat granite marker with a ceramic vase, inscribed “Baby Jane” in block letters and, below, “Known only to God.” A pastor offered to lead the services. Four deputies served as pallbearers. A local paper reported more than two hundred attendees. “A lot of females, mothers boo-hooing,” Moore recalled. “It was a beautiful funeral.”
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Baby Jane "Delta Dawn" Doe's find-a-grave page:

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSsr=841&GScid=60897&GRid=41079827&
 
carbuff said:
I wonder if while he was driving he saw a pile of clothes off the bridge, and then when he stopped he heard about the woman and realized he might have seen her body.

As the years go by, and a person revisits the event in their head, they tweak it. Maybe they make themselves more sure than they were, or more heroic, or push a detail here or there to make it sound more exciting, or to make the narrative more coherent. In this case he might be emphasizing the parts that say, "I didn't have anything to do with it, I just saw something and reported it."

I'm not sure the discrepancies aren't just differences in phrasing by someone who's not usually precise with language.

A practiced liar would not make those kinds of inconsistent statements. Ordinary people do.
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I have to disagree with this: A practiced liar would not make those kinds of inconsistent statements. Ordinary people do. It is easier to forget a lie than it is to forget the truth, liars often forget the details they used, and that is most often how they get caught. I'm sire that he has tweaked his story a few times,but I still find the entire story questionable.
 
Yes Snoopydawgdawg, that bothers me too. This baby was apparently well cared for, yet she had not eaten that day? And she was not dressed for the weather in that area. That says to me, that either she jumped from a vehicle unexpectedly without baby doe's coat or blanket, or that she had not intended to be in that area. The fact that she was holding the baby that tight, that says to me she was afraid someone was going to take her away from her.

If the mothers body had been found then I might feel differently, but nothing in all these years? That makes me wonder if she was ever there.
 
Sad for this family. You would think after all this time, someone would have mentioned a mom and a baby missing. Or even searched...
 
I'm from the area, I live in Mobile Alabama but I did drive back and forth to Biloxi for work and have lived in both Gulfport and Ocean Springs MS. There are a few things I think are note worthy about the area. Firstly south Mississippi is littered with Military bases and families. So the child possibly coming from another state and the family losing contact I think is a good possibility. Secondly regarding the lack of the mothers body it should be noted that 1-10 especially the route from Alabama to Mississippi is a lot of swamp land marsh area. With that you deal with Alligators which will easily dispose of bodies. Finally the area that I always thought the child was found at is in an area with few to no interstate exits for miles. Then the few exits that are available have nothing there but more road. No gas stations no houses etc and that's now in 2014 much less during that time period. The particular section I thought the child was found under is a bridge (that if you were on foot at night with a baby in your arms would seem like it never ended) it's narrow,shaky, and has no land in the center or on the sides. With it being December we have a different kind of cold here due to the humidity, it's a wet cold if that makes any sense. In December there are days where you can get by with a tshirt and jeans no problem but then when night comes even the heaviest thickest coat won't work. For me I have always thought the mom got in a fight with a man in a car and she got out on the interstate walking, angry, and hoping he would follow and makeup for it, she got herself in a bad situation and then when realized she was in a dangerous situation on the bridge jumped over with her child, in the dark she ended up losing the child in the water, she made it out and the child never did and to avoid prison time they just covered it up. Maybe I'm crazy but I think it's possible.
 
On December 5, 1982 the body of an unidentified child was found in thick brush along the Escatawpa River, beneath the Westbound lanes of Interstate 10 in Jackson County, MS. The body was that of a white female, approximately 18 months old. She had been deceased less than two days before being found. The child was approximately 2’5" tall and weighed around 25 pounds. More at link.
https://www.facebook.com/Unidentified18thMonthOldGirl
 
another reason to hold her so tight was maybe to keep her warm.

Still_Seek_Answers said:
Yes Snoopydawgdawg, that bothers me too. This baby was apparently well cared for, yet she had not eaten that day? And she was not dressed for the weather in that area. That says to me, that either she jumped from a vehicle unexpectedly without baby doe's coat or blanket, or that she had not intended to be in that area. The fact that she was holding the baby that tight, that says to me she was afraid someone was going to take her away from her.

If the mothers body had been found then I might feel differently, but nothing in all these years? That makes me wonder if she was ever there.
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Since I live in Mississippi, I feel very close to this case. I really hope this will be the year we will be able to give her back her name.
 
the current composite photo bothers me a little because they seem to have made it look as though the toddler girl has some sort of make up or gloss on her lips.
 
traacker13 said:
As a mother, I cannot even fathom this. If this was also the only thing she had left in her life why would she let her go? One would think she would be holding on to her with everything she had. And even if she had accidentally died I can't imagine why she would throw her daughter into the river. The more I read the more I think about this the more desperate this woman seems and the more it seems to me that she was trying to commit suicide and her daughter unfortunately he went with her.
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I don't have any kids yet but I had to stay away from this thread for awhile because of the issues that you bring up in this post. I was thinking about these things and began to think that, if the story about the woman is true, it's probably not her baby. Maybe the little girl is a step-daughter or the child of someone she really hates. The problem with this would be, what circumstances would have to be in place for the little girl not to be reported missing? I know if I little kid like this girl was reported missing now, she would be all over the news; I don't remember how it was back in 1982 (I was only a bit older than the unidentified girl herself back then).
 
Ms Suzanne said:
Hi
I agree with you.I thought the trucker knew a little too much too.I think the trucking community back then know something.I agree,very strange story.

suzanne
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And next time a trucker spots something funny, he will drive one because he heard about this mate of his who called the police and then got into a lot of trouble.
 
Still_Seek_Answers said:
I do agree she seemed desperate, but I think she was desperate from trying to get away from someone. I think if she had committed suicide, she'd have been there with the baby. The baby was found in a swampy marshy area....so where is the mother?
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Two bodies of different size will behave differently when thrown into a river. A breeze, a tree branch, sliding into an underwater current will send them to very different places.

For all it's worth, I think it's a murder/suicide. Maybe untreated baby blues that went on for too long.
 
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