Media reports at the time were that youths found the baby’s body about 20 feet from the top of the hill behind the former Bosbach Cleaners at 146 Brown Ave.
Cavalry Cemetery off Northampton St. is where Lt. Michael J. Higgins comes every year to lay flowers at the grave of Baby Jane Doe, a newborn baby that Higgins found dead on a hillside in 1992. The death was ruled a homicide but never solved. HOLYOKE – On June 18, as he has every year for nearly two decades, Police Lt. Michael J. Higgins placed flowers on the grave of a baby whose identity remains a mystery.
Higgins was first on the scene on the afternoon of March 1, 1992, when police received a report of a dead newborn girl found naked in a paper bag on a hill on Brown Avenue.
Hours after the girl’s burial on June 17, 1992, at Calvary Cemetery on Northampton Street, then-Hampden district attorney William M. Bennett announced the newborn’s death was being handled as a homicide.
“So sad. How do you do that? I look back and say, clearly, someone in their right mind couldn’t have done that,” said Higgins, now a 33-year veteran of the police force, as he talked about his tradition of honoring the child.
To Higgins’ knowledge, the investigation never yielded an arrest, suspect or motive.
Media reports at the time were that children, or teenagers, found the baby’s body about 20 feet from the top of the hill behind the former Bosbach Cleaners at 146 Brown Ave. Higgins recalls it being a man who called police about finding the baby.
The ridge along the top of the hill was roped off. Detectives wielding flashlights worked into the night in search of evidence, the Union-News, The Republican’s predecessor publication, reported.
The body was held for three months for tests. Messier Funeral Home here provided the burial, which along with the plot and monuments, was donated.
“The body was found in Holyoke, and will be buried in Holyoke,” funeral home owner Clement Messier said at the time.
The baby’s burial was attended by a group of mothers and anti-abortion activists who left flowers and teddy bears at the casket. At the service, the Rev. Fred Cournoyer, pastor of Sacred Heart Church, told about 60 mourners, “The casket is too small. The dead should be buried by those who know them,” according to the newspaper report.
Rabbi Gabriel Mazar of the Sons of Zion Congregation told mourners, “She will not play with toys. She will not run in the open fields or smell the smells of spring. She will not receive a warm goodnight kiss.”
Higgins said he brings flowers to the girl’s grave every year on or near the date of her burial because he believes the girl deserves to be remembered. “The baby was never IDed,” he said.