Mountain State Mysteries contains adult content and may not be suitable for all audiences.
Listener discretion is advised. I'm your host Mark and I'm Courtney and this is Mountain State Mysteries.
The story we have for you today is about a newborn that was found in a trash bag by a
Harper's Ferry Park Ranger on March 21, 2004. On the bank of the Shenandoah River,
this is the story of Harper's Ferry, baby Christian. An 18-year-old mystery of a newborn
found in a trash bag on the edge of the Shenandoah River still haunts the town of Harper's Ferry,
West Virginia. Members of the community haven't given up hope on finding out who killed the baby
boy. On March 21, 2004, the newborn with his umbilical cord still attached was found in a trash bag
by a Harper's Ferry Park Ranger along the river in Jefferson County. The bag had been thrown from
the US 340 Bridge above. Ranger Dave Tucker of Harper's Ferry National Historical Park was in
the area for a water rescue when he found the bag. He thought it was just a bag of trash someone
threw out until he lifted the bag and realized how heavy it was before looking inside and fighting
the deceased baby. In the trash bag was a newborn baby wrapped in a pink sheet and a white sheet
placed into a trash bag which was tied and closed placed into another trash bag with
three five-pound weights in it, tightened shut and tossed off the bridge landing about 20 feet
away from the water's edge. Captain David Colbert took the call listening to the call.
You can still hear the disbelief in his voice. Colbert said, I can listen back to the 911 tape
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
bag. I asked him twice for clarification. Colbert with a baby daughter at home in the back of his
mind still struggles talking about what he saw 18 years later. He said, I went over to the Ranger
and he opened up the bag and outside of the bag was a weight. The weight was beside the bag
and he opened up the bag and it was bed sheets with the baby inside it. He recounted, you could see
the back of the baby you could tell it was deceased. I think about it a lot something like that. I don't
think it ever really goes away. Sometimes you just put it in the back of your mind but you can
close your eyes and see it like it's right now. Colbert said the trash bag was weighed down with 3
5 pound weights. The 9 pound infant was wrapped in bed sheets. The current lead investigator of the
case Lieutenant Stephen Holt said, I believe that they thought they were throwing the child into the
river and the weights were meant to hide the evidence and the baby would just sink to the
bottom of the river. The medical examiner was able to determine that the newborn was there at least
three months but could have been there longer. Possibly as long as three months it was determined
that he was still alive when he was put inside the trash bag and that the 60 foot fall was more
than likely what killed him. Colbert said the belief is that the baby was alive and it died
with trauma that is consistent with the impact of being thrown off the bridge. When Colbert was asked
what was the one piece of information he wanted from this case he said that he wanted to find out
who the mother was that threw the newborn off of the bridge. That's really what matters. I don't
know what was going on with any of these people. Ultimately I want to know who put the baby in
a bag and threw it off at the bridge. Colbert said that's what I want to know. If I had a crystal ball
that's the what I would want to know. Who has it in them to put a live baby in a bag with weights
and throw it off of a bridge. And you're listening to Mountain State Mysteries.
In life the baby didn't even have a name until the town residents made him theirs. He belongs to
all of us now and we're the people who could do something for him. Said Henry Christy a local
chiropractor in Chaplin. The baby would be named Christian which means of Christ. After the state
did their autopsy they were just going to put him in a popper's grave. Christy who officiated the
service for the baby Christian in April of 2004 said Sam and the sheriff and some others petitioned
the state to get the child up here and he became part of Jefferson County. Sergeant Sam Harman
with the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office held named the boy and planned the funeral. The sheriff's
office bought the clothes. Baby Christian would be buried in. It is reported that Harman chose a
pale blue shirt with a puppy on it with matching pants and white socks. Harman told the Washington
Post that he was going to dig through a bag of his son's old clothes but he didn't want him going
out of this world in hand me downs. The 24 inch coffin was donated by Eccles Spencer funeral home.
Spencer told the newspaper I gave more of these away than I sell. Spencer also ordered a guest
book programs and arranged a funeral to be held at Harper's Ferry Middle School. Tom Daley's of
Jefferson County monument sales donated a headstone. It sits at the H. H. Hill Cemetery in Charlestown
and reads in memory of baby Christian given to Jefferson County March 21st 2004. But at first
they weren't sure what to put on it but Harman grabbed a piece of paper and wrote it out. Mr. Daley
said that's perfect and of course that's what's been on there for 18 years. More than 100 people
packed into the school to say goodbye to a baby they never knew. A pacifier was gifted from a
taller and was tucked into the hands of baby Christian.
You're listening to mountain state mysteries.
A round town question started to go around on who baby Christians parents could be.
TIP started to pour in into the sheriff's office. Colbert said every investigator that came through
the investigative office have taken a look at this case in some way shape or form over the years.
Colbert said somebody had this baby. Somebody was pregnant and we're just hoping that someone
would have some information that would lead us into the direction of someone who had been pregnant
now. Obviously they were not pregnant. This investigation is still active. Colbert emphasized
and has had the full support of Jefferson County Prosecuting Attorney Matt Harvey and the sheriff
Tom Henson. DNA samples were taken from the baby alongside with fingerprints from the bag and other
items in it. A 2004 article from herald mail media noted that additional forensic testing
had been authorized to try to solve the case. A suspect previously had been identified but
DNA samples did not match. Colbert said at the time according to June 2004 Associated Press
article Sheriff Ed Boober said police started focusing on a suspect shortly after the baby was found.
And you're listening to Mountain State Mysteries.
This year baby Christian would have been 18 years old on his birthday. The town of Harper's
Ferry held a memorial at his grave. If you came here today looking for answers definite answers
I apologize because I do not have any. Why God gave baby Christian a few short breaths on this earth
is a great mystery and that mystery has continued for these 18 years. Christie told a still grouping
group of community members gathered to mourn the baby that they never knew. Ian Kilfern
helped arrange the service held at the grave site. She said that the case of baby Christian
became personal because she looked so close to the cemetery. I came to visit his grave every day
and I thought my lord he's going to be 18 years old. She said he's our baby every single person
that knows about him. He's our child we love him and we want justice served. When she walks by she
tells him that he's not forgotten and that there's people who are determined to find out what happened
to him. I have 13 grandchildren and to think of someone doing that to one of them it just tears
my heart apart she said. She knows the time isn't on their side. People move on a tragedy happens
a murder happens people move on with their own lives and I don't want him to be forgotten
for and said but she knows that it's just a matter of time before the truth about what
happened to baby Christian and comes to light. We aren't sure who was responsible for putting
baby Christian in a garbage bag weighted down with 15 pounds more than his own weight. Maybe an
angry father who didn't want any more children was responsible. Maybe a mother with mental health
issues or who feared the child's father if he had to be responsible for another child.
Regardless of the reason this person committed such a terrible crime they need to be brought to
justice because who is to say they won't do the same thing again under a similar circumstance.
Baby Christian deserves the acknowledgement that he did not deserve to be left in a garbage bag
unwanted and unsolved. If you have any information on this case please contact the Jefferson
County Sheriff's Office at 304-728-3205. Courtney do you have any final thoughts before we sign off?
This is probably one of the hardest cases I think we've done this far. There is a ton of
unanswered questions here. It makes you wonder if the mother gave birth at home. If the mother was
a young mother I mean there have been plenty of cases that have been out there to where girls have
given birth at prom and have disposed of the baby in a toilet or throwing the baby in a garbage can
things of that nature. There's a lot of unanswered questions there. It also makes me wonder if the
mother gave birth in a hospital. If the mother had any type of prenatal care things of that nature
if the mother did have postpartum depression we need to discuss that right there because
it is something that we still make it very taboo talking about depression in and of itself but
postpartum depression is even more taboo because people just think that you're just basically
joyous about a baby coming in and truthfully everything changes whenever you have a baby.
Your hormones are trying to settle back down and you know a lot of times if you go for help you're
kind of may feel guilty that you're going for help and that don't need to be the case. If there's any
of our listeners that are out here right now who are going through postpartum depression do not be
ashamed whatsoever to reach out for help. Go to your provider and ask for that help.
I do want to see justice done for baby Christian more importantly I just wanted to know that
he didn't feel nothing as he was murdered. I do want to know that and I hope the baby didn't
suffer. Mark do you have any final thoughts? I have faith that this case can be solved from DNA
because this week the 65 year old case of the boy in the box his identity was confirmed from DNA
that was 65 years old so they can still test it they can still try to find out who the parents were
who baby Christian is really so I still have faith that this case can be solved.
Next time on Mountain State Mysteries we're going to tell you the story of a mysterious murder that
happened in 2016 with the evidence washed away the next day.
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