ODESSA, Texas — More than a year ago, a Hobbs woman was caught putting her newborn baby in a dumpster. The baby spent six hours in the trash, and thanks to video surveillance, the baby was rescued and the mother was identified, arrested and charged with attempted first degree murder.
Alexis Avila is awaiting her trial in April, and the baby is safe and sound.
However, if you go all the way back to 1996, video surveillance wasn’t as accessible as it is now, and a baby who went through a situation almost identical to this one wasn’t as fortunate.
Life is a precious thing, and when it's thrown away, it's a tragedy.
But when a newborn baby is found dead in a dumpster, it's more than a heartbreaking tragedy... it's murder.
This is the story of Baby John Doe.
"This is a case that was one of the very first cases that I was actually ever involved in."
Susan Rogers is the CEO of Odessa Crime Stoppers.
"I'm in my 36th year as a director for Crime Stoppers," Rogers said.
One of her first cases was possibly the most heartbreaking.
"In July of 1996, the body of a newborn baby boy was found in a dumpster in South Central Odessa," Rogers said. "Investigators believe that he had been put in there alive and had been killed after he got into the dumpster. He would have been hit in the head or something and actually lived for a little while in in that dumpster."
An innocent life, hurt and slowly dying as he sat abandoned in a dumpster.
His cries were heard by some.
"And there was a lady who had a small child as well," Rogers said. "It's summertime, it's the middle of the night. She's got her windows open. She hears a baby crying, goes to check on her baby and her baby's not crying. So she probably actually heard Baby Doe in the dumpster at some point."
Baby Doe's death shocked the community.
It was hard to imagine that an innocent baby, who didn't even have a name, could be thrown away like trash.
"I remember so much community support back when this happened," Rogers said. "Number one: it was a newborn baby. That tugged on a lot of heartstrings and everybody wanted to know what happened."
"The one thing that when when we talk about Baby Doe back in that day when when the body was actually found in the dumpster, news crews were there," Rogers said. "So there's video of one of the investigators actually lifting the body up out of the dumpster. That went statewide. I mean it was so heart wrenching to see, to see that."
The main question on everyone’s mind was who would kill arguably the most innocent thing in the world?
"You just can't fathom that someone would do that," Rogers said. "I mean- I can't at least. I can't even imagine what was going through that young that woman's mind when that happened, and people are in different situations, and it's very possible she thought that was the only the only solution she had."
"And I'm relatively sure that the program where you can drop infants off at the fire department was not around. I don't think that was a program was even thought of at that time."
But still, 27 years later, police still don't know who killed Baby John Doe.
"There's been a lot of theories on this; was it someone actually from Odessa?" Rogers said. "It was so close to the Interstate, was it someone that was pregnant and delivered on the Interstate and that was the nearest trashcan they found? There's been all kinds of theories that have been bounced around over the years. Again, nothing has led led to anything solid but there have been several different theories."
Despite this case being so old, Rogers still believes the case of Baby Doe will be solved through another element that wasn’t as prominent back then.
"We talked about the advancements in DNA from the advancements from 1996 and the advancements even further, there's, there's just so much developing with DNA profiles and stuff," Rogers said. "The DNA that we need to solve this case may not be here right now. Ten years from now that DNA- maybe not even ten years- five years from now, you know, with the advances in DNA and the different things that they're doing in genetics. All of this, you know, may happen."
Even without DNA, tips from the community could provide the answers police are looking for.
"Baby Doe is probably the only cold case that when we run it, someone responds to us," Rogers said. "It's not been enough for us to get a parent, but it does get response from the community."
Maybe your tip can be the one that helps Odessa Crime Stoppers and the OPD finally solve this.
The story of Baby Doe is a devastating one, this baby could have grown up to do great things, but instead, he was killed and thrown away.
All we can do now is get justice for the baby with no name, and the way to do that, is to help solve the sad and shocking cold case of Baby John Doe.
Odessa Crime Stoppers are also doing their own series on Odessa cold cases called the "Behind the Line Podcast". They’ve already covered a few cases, so if you’re interested visit 333tips.org.
