Florida Officials Say ‘Baby June’ Case Is Now a Homicide Investigation

An infant that police have dubbed “Baby June” was found dead off the coast of Florida’s coast several months ago, but police have now just ruled the case a homicide. (Palm Beach County Sheriff)

An infant police have dubbed “Baby June” was found dead off the coast of Florida’s coast several months ago, but police have now just ruled the case a homicide.

The child was found 75 to 100 feet off the Boynton Beach Inlet in June 2018, according to Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Capt. Steven Stravelli.

“This case is a homicide,” said Capt. Steve Strivelli on Nov. 26, Local10 reported. A medical examiner confirmed the cause of death, but no further details were revealed.

Authorities said they think the baby may have drifted to the north from Broward County, but they haven’t elaborated, the report said.

Officials believe the girl, who has not been identified, was between four and seven days old when she died, according to the report.

He said police have only received 16 tips in the case since June. “None of those tips have led to anything for us in this case and we are still desperate for anything that we can get from the public,” Strivelli said.

The baby is half-Asian, half-African, he said. “Most often a person with this 50-50 split would be found in areas like Barbados, Trinidad or Jamaica, or from those areas originally,” Strivelli told the news outlet. According to CBS12, the baby, namely, has Central Asian ancestry.

“We’ve got the DNA in the database and it’s going to be continually run by Parabon,” said Strivelli. “I’m confident that some day we’ll figure out what happened here, but I’m not willing to wait 50 Years. I want to see what we can do now.”

And meanwhile, he added, the child was also likely born in a hospital. “Some hospital somewhere has evidence of this child being born, but we just haven’t found it yet,” he said. WPTV reported the child’s umbilical cord was cut.

Officials are offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to an arrest in the case.

“We hate seeing this and we want to get to the bottom of what happened,” said Strivelli. “We’re not going to stop here. This case is not going to close until we get completion.”

The sheriff’s office said they checked records of every child born in Palm Beach and Broward counties, but they’ve had no luck with a match, WPTV reported.

If you have any information about the case, call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-458-TIPS, or the Special Victims Unit of the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office at 561-688-4155.

Crime Down

In September 2018, the FBI said Americans committed fewer violent and property crimes in 2017, according to statistics. The violent crime rate—including offenses such as murder, robbery, and aggravated assault—dropped by almost 1 percent and is still about 4 percent above the 2014 rate. The murder rate dropped by 0.7 percent.

“After historic increases in violent crime in 2015 and 2016, we are beginning to see encouraging signs,” Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a statement at the time. “But our work is not done. While we have made progress, violent crime and drug trafficking continue to plague our communities and destroy the lives of innocent, law-abiding Americans.”

Reuters contributed to this report.