Christine Marie Warren was charged on March 15, 2021, with the murder of her newborn son on November 18, 1997, in the rest room of a gas station in Seattle, Washington.
Video footage shows a woman going into the rest room at about 11:20 pm that evening and exiting about 14 minutes later. A witness claims to have heard a baby cry in the rest room. The baby was found about two days later in the rest room trash can by an employee who was emptying the garbage. An autopsy determined that the baby was born alive and died by homicide shortly thereafter. He was nicknamed Baby Boy Doe, and he was buried in Calvary Cemetery through community donations.
A DNA profile of the baby’s mother was developed in January 2018 from placental blood collected at the autopsy. The FIGG investigation was conducted by Barbara Rae Venter of Firebird Forensics. The initial confirmation was made surreptitiously in November of 2020, when police sent her a fictional survey, and obtained a DNA sample from the envelope.
Warren has admitted to police that she abandoned the boy in the trash can, and that she was not aware whether he was alive when she left. She was charged with second-degree murder and abandonment of a dependent person and has been released on bail.
On January 6, 2023, Warren pled guilty to first-degree manslaughter in King County Superior Court and was sentenced to five years of community custody whereby she will be supervised in the community.
Sources:
Green Sara Jean. “Seattle Woman Arrested 23 Years After Her Infant Son was Found Dead in a Lake City Trash Can.” Seattle Times, March 11, 2021. Accessed March 16, 2021. https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/crime/seattle-woman-arrested-23-years-after-her-infant-son-was-found-dead-in-a-lake-city-trash-can/?fbclid=IwAR17Y5leW38Ur0xZLbyMtOiz0CiYgLD4s37HdMMpltXfsgPegXY_ZasPx9M.
Keller, Aaron. “Mother Charged with Murder Tells Detectives What Happened When She Dumped Her Newborn Baby Into a Gas Station Trash Can in 1997.” Law & Crime, March 16, 2021. Accessed March 16, 2021. https://lawandcrime.com/crime/mother-charged-with-murder-tells-detectives-what-happened-when-she-dumped-her-newborn-baby-into-a-gas-station-trash-can-in-1997/.
King 5 News Staff. “Seattle Woman Receives 60 Months of Community Custody for 1997 Killing of Newborn Son.” King 5 News, January 6, 2023. Accessed May 30, 2023. https://www.king5.com/article/news/crime/seattle-woman-sentenced-1997-murder-newborn/281-952705b5-7abe-4a40-a480-e58484115995.
Komo News Staff. “Woman Charged with 1997 Death of Newborn Baby at Seattle Gas Station.” KOMO News, March 16, 2021. Accessed March 16, 2021. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/woman-charged-with-1997-death-of-newborn-baby-at-seattle-gas-station/ar-BB1eEf7B.
Washington v. Christine Marie Warren. Information. No. 21-1-00297-1 SEA. Superior Court of Washington, King County. March 15, 2021. https://lawandcrime.com/crime/mother-charged-with-murder-tells-detectives-what-happened-when-she-dumped-her-newborn-baby-into-a-gas-station-trash-can-in-1997/.