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Mountain State Mysteries contains adult content and may not be suitable for all audiences.

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Listener discretion is advised. I'm your host Mark and I'm Courtney and this is Mountain State Mysteries.

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The story we have for you today is about a newborn that was found in a trash bag by a

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Harper's Ferry Park Ranger on March 21, 2004. On the bank of the Shenandoah River,

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this is the story of Harper's Ferry, baby Christian. An 18-year-old mystery of a newborn

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found in a trash bag on the edge of the Shenandoah River still haunts the town of Harper's Ferry,

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West Virginia. Members of the community haven't given up hope on finding out who killed the baby

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boy. On March 21, 2004, the newborn with his umbilical cord still attached was found in a trash bag

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by a Harper's Ferry Park Ranger along the river in Jefferson County. The bag had been thrown from

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the US 340 Bridge above. Ranger Dave Tucker of Harper's Ferry National Historical Park was in

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the area for a water rescue when he found the bag. He thought it was just a bag of trash someone

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threw out until he lifted the bag and realized how heavy it was before looking inside and fighting

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the deceased baby. In the trash bag was a newborn baby wrapped in a pink sheet and a white sheet

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placed into a trash bag which was tied and closed placed into another trash bag with

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three five-pound weights in it, tightened shut and tossed off the bridge landing about 20 feet

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away from the water's edge. Captain David Colbert took the call listening to the call.

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You can still hear the disbelief in his voice. Colbert said, I can listen back to the 911 tape

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and you can hear it in my voice and I'm kind of taking a back when I heard there was a baby in the

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bag. I asked him twice for clarification. Colbert with a baby daughter at home in the back of his

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mind still struggles talking about what he saw 18 years later. He said, I went over to the Ranger

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and he opened up the bag and outside of the bag was a weight. The weight was beside the bag

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and he opened up the bag and it was bed sheets with the baby inside it. He recounted, you could see

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the back of the baby you could tell it was deceased. I think about it a lot something like that. I don't

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think it ever really goes away. Sometimes you just put it in the back of your mind but you can

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close your eyes and see it like it's right now. Colbert said the trash bag was weighed down with 3

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5 pound weights. The 9 pound infant was wrapped in bed sheets. The current lead investigator of the

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case Lieutenant Stephen Holt said, I believe that they thought they were throwing the child into the

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river and the weights were meant to hide the evidence and the baby would just sink to the

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bottom of the river. The medical examiner was able to determine that the newborn was there at least

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three months but could have been there longer. Possibly as long as three months it was determined

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that he was still alive when he was put inside the trash bag and that the 60 foot fall was more

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than likely what killed him. Colbert said the belief is that the baby was alive and it died

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with trauma that is consistent with the impact of being thrown off the bridge. When Colbert was asked

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what was the one piece of information he wanted from this case he said that he wanted to find out

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who the mother was that threw the newborn off of the bridge. That's really what matters. I don't

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know what was going on with any of these people. Ultimately I want to know who put the baby in

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a bag and threw it off at the bridge. Colbert said that's what I want to know. If I had a crystal ball

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that's the what I would want to know. Who has it in them to put a live baby in a bag with weights

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and throw it off of a bridge. And you're listening to Mountain State Mysteries.

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In life the baby didn't even have a name until the town residents made him theirs. He belongs to

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all of us now and we're the people who could do something for him. Said Henry Christy a local

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chiropractor in Chaplin. The baby would be named Christian which means of Christ. After the state

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did their autopsy they were just going to put him in a popper's grave. Christy who officiated the

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service for the baby Christian in April of 2004 said Sam and the sheriff and some others petitioned

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the state to get the child up here and he became part of Jefferson County. Sergeant Sam Harman

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with the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office held named the boy and planned the funeral. The sheriff's

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office bought the clothes. Baby Christian would be buried in. It is reported that Harman chose a

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pale blue shirt with a puppy on it with matching pants and white socks. Harman told the Washington

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Post that he was going to dig through a bag of his son's old clothes but he didn't want him going

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out of this world in hand me downs. The 24 inch coffin was donated by Eccles Spencer funeral home.

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Spencer told the newspaper I gave more of these away than I sell. Spencer also ordered a guest

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book programs and arranged a funeral to be held at Harper's Ferry Middle School. Tom Daley's of

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Jefferson County monument sales donated a headstone. It sits at the H. H. Hill Cemetery in Charlestown

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and reads in memory of baby Christian given to Jefferson County March 21st 2004. But at first

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they weren't sure what to put on it but Harman grabbed a piece of paper and wrote it out. Mr. Daley

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said that's perfect and of course that's what's been on there for 18 years. More than 100 people

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packed into the school to say goodbye to a baby they never knew. A pacifier was gifted from a

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taller and was tucked into the hands of baby Christian.

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You're listening to mountain state mysteries.

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A round town question started to go around on who baby Christians parents could be.

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TIP started to pour in into the sheriff's office. Colbert said every investigator that came through

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the investigative office have taken a look at this case in some way shape or form over the years.

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Colbert said somebody had this baby. Somebody was pregnant and we're just hoping that someone

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would have some information that would lead us into the direction of someone who had been pregnant

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now. Obviously they were not pregnant. This investigation is still active. Colbert emphasized

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and has had the full support of Jefferson County Prosecuting Attorney Matt Harvey and the sheriff

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Tom Henson. DNA samples were taken from the baby alongside with fingerprints from the bag and other

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items in it. A 2004 article from herald mail media noted that additional forensic testing

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had been authorized to try to solve the case. A suspect previously had been identified but

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DNA samples did not match. Colbert said at the time according to June 2004 Associated Press

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article Sheriff Ed Boober said police started focusing on a suspect shortly after the baby was found.

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And you're listening to Mountain State Mysteries.

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This year baby Christian would have been 18 years old on his birthday. The town of Harper's

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Ferry held a memorial at his grave. If you came here today looking for answers definite answers

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I apologize because I do not have any. Why God gave baby Christian a few short breaths on this earth

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is a great mystery and that mystery has continued for these 18 years. Christie told a still grouping

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group of community members gathered to mourn the baby that they never knew. Ian Kilfern

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helped arrange the service held at the grave site. She said that the case of baby Christian

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became personal because she looked so close to the cemetery. I came to visit his grave every day

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and I thought my lord he's going to be 18 years old. She said he's our baby every single person

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that knows about him. He's our child we love him and we want justice served. When she walks by she

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tells him that he's not forgotten and that there's people who are determined to find out what happened

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to him. I have 13 grandchildren and to think of someone doing that to one of them it just tears

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my heart apart she said. She knows the time isn't on their side. People move on a tragedy happens

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a murder happens people move on with their own lives and I don't want him to be forgotten

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for and said but she knows that it's just a matter of time before the truth about what

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happened to baby Christian and comes to light. We aren't sure who was responsible for putting

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baby Christian in a garbage bag weighted down with 15 pounds more than his own weight. Maybe an

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angry father who didn't want any more children was responsible. Maybe a mother with mental health

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issues or who feared the child's father if he had to be responsible for another child.

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Regardless of the reason this person committed such a terrible crime they need to be brought to

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justice because who is to say they won't do the same thing again under a similar circumstance.

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Baby Christian deserves the acknowledgement that he did not deserve to be left in a garbage bag

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unwanted and unsolved. If you have any information on this case please contact the Jefferson

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County Sheriff's Office at 304-728-3205. Courtney do you have any final thoughts before we sign off?

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This is probably one of the hardest cases I think we've done this far. There is a ton of

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unanswered questions here. It makes you wonder if the mother gave birth at home. If the mother was

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a young mother I mean there have been plenty of cases that have been out there to where girls have

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given birth at prom and have disposed of the baby in a toilet or throwing the baby in a garbage can

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things of that nature. There's a lot of unanswered questions there. It also makes me wonder if the

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mother gave birth in a hospital. If the mother had any type of prenatal care things of that nature

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if the mother did have postpartum depression we need to discuss that right there because

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it is something that we still make it very taboo talking about depression in and of itself but

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postpartum depression is even more taboo because people just think that you're just basically

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joyous about a baby coming in and truthfully everything changes whenever you have a baby.

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Your hormones are trying to settle back down and you know a lot of times if you go for help you're

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kind of may feel guilty that you're going for help and that don't need to be the case. If there's any

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of our listeners that are out here right now who are going through postpartum depression do not be

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ashamed whatsoever to reach out for help. Go to your provider and ask for that help.

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I do want to see justice done for baby Christian more importantly I just wanted to know that

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he didn't feel nothing as he was murdered. I do want to know that and I hope the baby didn't

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suffer. Mark do you have any final thoughts? I have faith that this case can be solved from DNA

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because this week the 65 year old case of the boy in the box his identity was confirmed from DNA

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that was 65 years old so they can still test it they can still try to find out who the parents were

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who baby Christian is really so I still have faith that this case can be solved.

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Next time on Mountain State Mysteries we're going to tell you the story of a mysterious murder that

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happened in 2016 with the evidence washed away the next day.

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Mountain State Mysteries please take a second to rate it on your favorite podcasting service it

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