An Ohio woman accused of leaving her newborn to die in the woods 26 years ago allegedly admitted to doing the same with another baby two years before that, say police.
In 1993, Gail Eastwood-Ritchey, 49, of the Cleveland suburb of Euclid, allegedly abandoned her baby shortly after he was born, leaving the child’s body to be mauled by animals and dragged onto a roadway, say authorities.
Using the same genetic genealogy that helped catch the notorious Golden State Killer suspect, police on Thursday arrested Eastwood-Ritchey, 49, a married mother with three adult children, in connection with the death of the baby who became known as “Geauga’s Child.”
She allegedly admitted to giving birth to the baby, putting him in a garbage bag and leaving him in the woods with his umbilical cord still attached, say authorities.
While talking to police, she also “admitted to a similar crime two years prior,” Sheriff Scott Hildenbrand of the Geauga County Sheriff’s Office said at a press conference Thursday.
RELATED: Golden State Killer Suspect Identified as 72-Year-Old Ex-Cop Who Was Fired for Allegedly Stealing
Eastwood-Ritchey allegedly said she left that baby in Cuyahoga County, though authorities have not yet found the child’s remains, he said.
On Thursday, a grand jury indicted her for murder and aggravated murder, local station WGN 9 reports.
The baby was born alive, according to the local medical examiner, but the exact cause of death is unknown, WGN 9 reports.
After the baby’s death, the community mourned the death of the then-anonymous baby, buying him a headstone, making handmade clothing for his funeral and burial and leaving flowers and gifts on his gravesite to this day, WGN 9 reports.
• Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Click here to get breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter.
The woman, who is still married to the newborn’s father, allegedly admitted her crime without showing any emotion, say authorities.
It is unclear whether the father knew she was pregnant or had allegedly disposed of two newborns.
“Over 26 years ago, Gail Eastwood-Ritchey left her biological child for dead,” Sheriff Scott Hildenbrand of the Geauga County Sheriff’s Office said at a press conference Thursday.
“To this day even though she admitted her involvement she shows no remorse and takes no ownership of the baby,” Hildenbrand added.
“Her reaction was that she had not even thought of this until we brought it up. She completely put it out of her mind. She always referred to the baby as an ‘it.’
“She really had no emotion as far as that’s concerned.”
For years, police searched for the baby’s killer to no avail.
In September 2018, the sheriff’s office decided to use new advances in DNA technology and genetic genealogy to track down the suspect after authorities in California had successfully apprehended Golden State Killer Joseph James DeAngelo using the same methods just five months earlier.
After identifying potential family members, detectives asked some of the 1,400 potential relatives on a family tree they constructed to submit DNA or to allow them to use DNA they had voluntarily submitted to an online database, said Geauga County Detective Donald Seamon, The Washington Post and the Associated Press report.
Two weeks ago, detectives executed a search warrant to obtain Eastwood-Ritchey’s DNA, Seamon said, The Washington Post and the AP report.
Eastwood-Ritchey has not yet entered a plea. She is expected to be arraigned on Friday. It is unclear whether she has retained an attorney who can speak on her behalf.
She is being held in the Geauga County Jail. She faces life in prison if convicted.
The “Geauga Child” case is the 51st in the nation that was solved using the technology, Hildebrand said, Cleveland.com reports.
Golden State Killer
23 featured stories since