For 41 years, this child was known simply as Baby Boy Doe.
Forty-one years after two hunters discovered a newborn left to die in the winter woods of Mansfield, Massachusetts, modern forensic genealogy has drawn a name from the silence surrounding his death. Dianne Curry Peck, who was seventeen at the time, now faces a murder charge — her identity surfaced not through confession or witness, but through DNA lifted from a soda bottle she discarded decades later. The case is a quiet testament to how science, patience, and the willingness to reopen forgotten files can restore identity to those history has buried without one.
- A baby buried for four decades under the name 'Baby Boy Doe' finally has a story attached to him — and that story has led to a murder charge.
- Investigators reopened the 1985 cold case in 2022, deploying forensic genetic genealogy against a mystery that had resisted every earlier effort to crack it.
- A discarded soda bottle from Peck's trash became the critical link, its DNA matching the infant's remains and collapsing the distance between 1985 and today.
- Peck, now 59, pleaded not guilty, offering an account — that she handed the baby to an ex-boyfriend for adoption — that prosecutors say contradicts the medical timeline.
- With the ex-boyfriend dead since 2020 and no corroborating witnesses, the case now turns on whether forensic evidence can overcome a contested and unverifiable narrative.
On a January morning in 1985, hunters in the woods outside Mansfield, Massachusetts, came upon what they first mistook for a doll in the snow. It was a newborn boy, naked and abandoned in freezing temperatures, umbilical cord still attached. He was buried as Baby Boy Doe, his funeral funded by the local police department and a former New England Patriots quarterback. For four decades, no one knew who he was.
In 2022, Bristol County investigators decided the case deserved another look. Using forensic genetic genealogy — a technique that cross-references DNA profiles against public ancestry databases — they eventually identified Dianne Curry Peck, now 59, as the infant's mother. The decisive evidence came from an unlikely source: a soda bottle retrieved from her trash, whose DNA matched the child's remains. This week, Peck appeared in court and pleaded not guilty to murder.
Investigators say Peck was seventeen and a Mansfield High School student when she gave birth on January 20, 1985, allegedly in the back seat of her ex-boyfriend's car. She told police she believed the baby was a girl and that she gave the infant to her ex-boyfriend, who claimed to know someone willing to adopt it. She said she never heard from him again. He died in 2020.
Prosecutors are skeptical. An autopsy suggested the infant had been in the woods for roughly twelve hours before discovery on January 26 — a timeline that conflicts with Peck's stated birth date. Authorities also noted there is no evidence anyone, including the ex-boyfriend, knew she was pregnant. Speaking outside the courthouse, FBI Special Agent-in-Charge Ted Docks called the case among the most heartbreaking imaginable, saying the boy had entered the world with limitless promise only to be denied the most basic right to live.
What the case ultimately demonstrates is the quiet, long reach of modern science. A technique that barely existed a decade ago, applied to a bottle pulled from someone's trash, gave a nameless child back his story. Whether the courts will find Peck responsible for his death remains to be decided — but Baby Boy Doe is no longer unknown.
On a winter morning in 1985, two hunters searching for rabbits in the woods outside Mansfield, Massachusetts, found what they thought was a doll lying in the snow. It was a newborn infant, naked, with the umbilical cord still attached. The child had been left to die in the freezing cold.
For forty-one years, that baby remained a mystery. He was buried under the name Baby Boy Doe, his funeral paid for by the Mansfield Police Department and a former New England Patriots quarterback named Steve Grogan. No one knew who he was or who had abandoned him. The case went nowhere, then cold, then was largely forgotten.
In 2022, Bristol County investigators decided to reopen it. They sent the infant's remains for DNA analysis and partnered with the FBI and state authorities to pursue a new angle: forensic genetic genealogy, a technique that had begun solving decades-old cases by matching DNA profiles against public genealogy databases. What they found led them to Dianne Curry Peck, now 59 years old, living in Massachusetts. DNA recovered from a soda bottle pulled from her trash matched the dead child. On Tuesday this week, Peck appeared in court and pleaded not guilty to murder.
According to investigators, Peck was seventeen years old and a student at Mansfield High School when she gave birth on January 20, 1985. She said she delivered the baby in the back seat of her ex-boyfriend's car. She told police she believed the child was a girl and that she handed the infant to her ex-boyfriend because he claimed he knew someone willing to adopt it. She never spoke to him again. He died in 2020.
Prosecutors have argued that Peck's account of events does not align with the medical evidence. An autopsy showed the infant had likely been in the woods for only about twelve hours before being discovered on January 26, which contradicts her stated birth date. The freezing temperatures and the condition of the body also raised questions about her timeline. Prosecutors noted there is no evidence that anyone, including the ex-boyfriend, knew Peck was pregnant.
FBI Boston Special Agent-in-Charge Ted Docks spoke outside the courthouse after the hearing. "Few cases are more heartbreaking than one involving a newborn baby, allegedly abandoned and left to die in the woods by his mother, deprived of the care, love and protection every child deserves," he said. "For 41 years, this child was known simply as Baby Boy Doe. He entered this world with limitless promise, but was denied the most basic right to live."
The case illustrates how forensic genetic genealogy—a tool that barely existed a decade ago—can reach back across decades to solve mysteries that seemed permanently closed. A discarded soda bottle, a database of genetic profiles, and the willingness to reopen old files combined to give a name, finally, to a child who had none. Whether Peck's account will hold up in court remains to be seen. But the boy in the Mansfield woods is no longer unknown.
Notable Quotes
Few cases are more heartbreaking than one involving a newborn baby, allegedly abandoned and left to die in the woods by his mother, deprived of the care, love and protection every child deserves.— FBI Boston Special Agent-in-Charge Ted Docks
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
How does a case stay cold for forty-one years before someone thinks to try DNA genealogy?
Because the technology didn't exist. Genetic genealogy as an investigative tool is barely fifteen years old. This case sat in a file until someone decided it was worth reopening with new methods.
The ex-boyfriend died in 2020. Does that change anything legally?
It removes a potential witness or defendant, but it doesn't change what happened to the baby. Peck is the one being charged. The ex-boyfriend's role—whether he knew what was happening, whether he was complicit—may never be fully known.
A soda bottle from her trash. That seems almost too simple.
It is simple, which is why it's powerful. She threw it away. She didn't know it would be tested decades later. That's the vulnerability of genetic genealogy—it catches people through the ordinary things they discard.
She was seventeen. Does that factor into how we understand this?
It's part of the story, but it doesn't change what allegedly happened to the infant. She was old enough to know the difference between a girl and a boy, old enough to understand what abandonment means. The prosecution will argue that age doesn't excuse the act.
What happens to cases like this now? Does every cold case with biological evidence get reopened?
Not automatically. But yes, there's a wave of them. Departments are going back through old files, pulling DNA from evidence that's been sitting in storage for decades. Some will be solved. Some won't. But the calculus has changed—it's now worth the effort.