Angel Baby Doe: Woman pleads guilty to abandoning newborn in Texas 24 years ago
CLEBURNE, Texas - The mother of the abandoned Texas newborn nicknamed Angel Baby Doe has been sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Mother Sentenced
What's new:
Shelby Stotts pleaded guilty recently to second-degree manslaughter. She was then sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Stotts is from Covington, which is located in Hill County, about an hour south of Dallas.
In 2024, new DNA technology helped detectives identify Stotts as the biological mother of a newborn baby girl who was found dead on the side of the road in nearby Johnson County.
The baby’s father was also identified, but he told investigators he didn’t know Stotts was pregnant. He has since named his daughter Taryn Angel Moreno.
What they're saying:
"This child was left nameless, bleeding, exposed to the elements, in short, left to die. But the good people of Johnson County opened their hearts to her, named her, provided her with a burial plot and headstone, gave her a funeral...and 24 years later, a Johnson County jury has given her justice. This was a cold case, but the need for justice does not fade with the passage of time. We will always fight for and seek justice no matter how long it takes," said Johnson County District Attorney Timothy Good.
The Cold Case
The backstory:
According to the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office, the body of a newborn baby girl was discovered by a resident who was picking up cans on the side of the road between Alvarado and Burleson in 2001.
The sheriff’s office believes she had been dumped – wrapped in a jacket and left to die.
A medical examiner determined she had been born alive. The ME ruled that she died of foul play, likely bleeding to death because her umbilical cord was still attached and not clamped.
Detectives referred to her as Angel Baby Doe for the next 20 years because they were never able to identify her or locate her mother.
20 years later, Angel Baby Doe’s identity still a mystery in Johnson County
Investigators are still trying to identify a newborn baby found dumped on the side of the road in Johnson County nearly 20 years ago.
Finally Identified
What we know:
In 2024, the Texas Attorney General’s Office announced the baby’s biological mother had been identified, located, and arrested.
A few years earlier, Johnson County detectives had sent forensic evidence to a lab near Houston for DNA testing.
"We were able to do the genealogy, which took a long time," said Dr. Kristen Mittelman, the lab’s chief development officer. "It was a difficult case, but we were able to actually provide the identity to law enforcement."
Angel Baby Doe cold case: Arrest made 23 years after newborn abandoned on side of road
DNA evidence was used to crack a two-decade-old cold case in Johnson County.
In this case, scientists built a DNA profile and then compared the profile to a family tree. That led investigators to Stotts.
"I couldn’t be more proud to be part of giving this baby her name back and get justice for her," Dr. Mittelman said.
The Source: The information in this story comes from the Johnson County Sheriff's Office, the Johson County District Attorney's Office, and past news coverage.