Baby Hope (A.K.A. The Girl in the Cooler)

[Kaylara]

http://media.amw.com/multimedia/fileRepository/db/472/125/Hope_Baby_sketch3.jpghttp://media.amw.com/multimedia/fileRepository/db/472/125/Hope_Baby_sketch2.jpghttp://media.amw.com/multimedia/fileRepository/db/472/125/Hope_Baby_toronto.jpghttp://www.missingkids.com/photographs/NCMU400005c1.jpg


A Murdered Baby, One Man's Hope

Back in 1991, Joe Reznick was the lieutenant in charge of the 34 Precinct in New York City. Now, Joe Reznick holds the title of Deputy Chief of the NYPD and is close to retirement. But there is one case that has haunted him for 15 years.

On July 23, 1991, a group of construction workers made a gruesome discovery - the body of a 3 - 5 year old little girl, malnourished, sexually abused and suffocated. Her tiny body stuffed into a blue igloo cooler. Immediately, detectives created a composite sketch of what the little girl might have looked like and chased down any and every tip that was called in to their office.

With Joe Reznick's lead, detectives worked tirelessly - trying to solve the case of the little girl they named Baby Hope. But, with no solid leads, Joe Reznick and the detectives of the 3-4 squad decided it was time to lay Baby Hope to rest - two years after the day she was found, brutally bound and murdered.

In the summer of 2005, Chief Reznick decided to give the case of Baby Hope one last shot. He called the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner and asked to have the body exhumed. Chief Reznick knew that with the advances of DNA technology, scientists might have a chance of identifying Baby Hope and of one day catching her killers.

Joe got his wish - Baby Hope was exhumed. Now, it was up to the missing persons division of the OCME and the work of Sheila Dennis to try and extract usable DNA from the badly decomposed remains. The missing persons division of the OCME has preformed the impossible before by identifying victims lost during the World Trade Center disaster on 911. But the process wouldn't be easy.

Extracting usable DNA from the degraded remains of Baby Hope proved to be a daunting task. But, with the advances of DNA technology, Chief Reznick and Sheila Dennis now have a low copy DNA profile for Baby Hope after months of hard work. However, they national DNA databank will not accept the controversial low copy DNA.

So, Chief Reznick and Sheila are missing the final piece of the puzzle - a name. They need someone to come forward who either knows who Baby Hope is or someone who knows what happened so the case of Baby Hope can finally be laid to rest.

Found at: http://www.amw.com/fugitives/brief.cfm?id=39735

http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20109250,00.html

http://www.missingkids.com/missingkids/servlet/PubCaseSearchServlet?act=viewChildDetail&caseNum=400005&orgPrefix=NCMU&seqNum=1&caseLang=en_US&searchLang=en_US

[Dakota Valkyrie]

I can understand the parents not reporting it (because they probably did it). I can't understand the rest of the family or friends remaining silent. Somewhere there has to be someone.

[Kaylara]

Yeah, I mean, someone had to know that this couple had a child and perhaps knew that the child died but not the circumstances. Unfortunately, it's also possible that a witness or someone who knows about this is an illegal alien and thus cannot come forward for fear of being deported. In the north east in NY & NJ you have some of the highest concentrations of illegal Hispanic immigrants in the entire country. Maybe instead of offering a cash reward, they should offer some kind of immunity for a witness and their family in return for information, or even a waive of fees and a fast tracked naturalization for a witness and their family. I think it would be worth it to give this baby a name and catch the sick fucks that did this.

I was looking on the website for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and found a few that kinda look similar to this girl (But I'm terrible at matching faces), and who are around the right age, but they were reported missing after 'Baby Hope' was found in the cooler. I don't know if those dates are accurate, as I've seen several cold cases hindered by inaccurate information, or by someone not reporting a child missing for months after they've been gone. The ones I found are as follows:
EMILY NICOLE RAMIREZ (http://www.missingkids.com/missingkids/servlet/PubCaseSearchServlet?act=viewChildDetail&caseNum=767282&orgPrefix=NCMC&seqNum=1&caseLang=en_US&searchLang=en_US)
http://www.missingkids.com/photographs/NCMC767282c1.jpg
CYNTHIA M. BRITTO (http://www.missingkids.com/missingkids/servlet/PubCaseSearchServlet?act=viewChildDetail&caseNum=774277&orgPrefix=NCMC&seqNum=1&caseLang=en_US&searchLang=en_US)
http://www.missingkids.com/photographs/NCMC774277c1.jpg
JACQUELINA ANN GOMEZ (http://www.missingkids.com/missingkids/servlet/PubCaseSearchServlet?act=viewChildDetail&caseNum=771639&orgPrefix=NCMC&seqNum=1&caseLang=en_US&searchLang=en_US)http://www.missingkids.com/photographs/NCMC771639c1.jpg
MICHELLE ENID DELFI-FELICIANO (http://www.missingkids.com/missingkids/servlet/PubCaseSearchServlet?act=viewChildDetail&caseNum=803442&orgPrefix=NCMC&seqNum=1&caseLang=en_US&searchLang=en_US)http://www.missingkids.com/photographs/NCMC803442c1.jpg

[Shizz]

Agreed..someone knows something - and that is why I appreciate you starting this thread. :hello:

[philly_phan]

I'm out of thanks but I wanted to thank ALL of you...I used to always check out AMW's website and I typically watch it weekly. They are good about getting the word out about missing kids. This is sad. Baby in a cooler! How cruel and fucking senseless, just callous. Ugh :banghead:

[Silvahalo]

When I saw the title, it just broke my heart. That a wee girl was brutally killed and raped, then put away like trash...sigh...countless, countless, I'm am sure have met this same fate. The pictures Kaylara posted, makes that fact even more real.

I pray your identity is found and that you can finally be given the respect and dignity you always deserved.

Sweet angel, I look forward to knowing your little face and name.
http://i510.photobucket.com/albums/s341/silvahalo68/Angels/ANGEL-1-1.jpg

[Kaylara]

Even if Baby Hope isn't one of those girls listed, which is very likely, those girls are still missing. It's just horrible. I can't imagine what it would be like to have a child that is just... gone. Missing without a trace, and no help in sight. :(

[witzah]

this is an old article, but its not mentioned in this thread and it deserves being posted here. it says Polaroids were found later near where the body was found of the girl giving oral sex to a man with his head cut out of the picture. they gave the pictures to thw fbi who made a clean composite sketch of the girl to release....which is why her picture is a sort of profile (so sad)

http://www.nytimes.com/1992/01/16/nyregion/photographs-are-linked-to-body-of-girl-who-was-found-in-cooler.html

[witzah]

for full disclosure .... found another article that suggests maybe those Polaroids were of an unrelated victim?

http://www.nytimes.com/1992/03/16/nyregion/photos-ruled-out-as-clue-to-body-in-cooler.html

[witzah]

this article suggests police couldn't tell from the body whether she was sexually abused????

http://www.nytimes.com/1991/08/03/nyregion/despite-calls-girl-in-cooler-is-not-identified.html?src=pm

[witzah]

Case History The child appeared to be malnourished, which would explain why she was underweight for her estimated age. She had been asphyxiated and there was evidence of sexual abuse. The child was located on a Tuesday morning in a park bordering the southbound lane of the Henry Hudson Parkway, near the Dyckman Street exit just north of the George Washington Bridge in the upper Manhattan area. The child was wrapped in a black plastic garbage bag and stuffed in a blue 30-quart Igloo ice cooler, about 13 inches wide, 13 inches deep and 24 inches long. Police believe she would have possibly been dumped no earlier then July 18th with 10 days added as an error margin. The cooler was located in a patch of woods on an embankment sloping down at a 45-degree angle from the highway to the Hudson River. The spot appeared to be a place for people to go and secretly party as evident with the amount of beer cans, cigarette butts and other debris. The child was in a crouched position with her head resting on her knees. There were no signs of bruises or wounds. The child was bound with a medium-weight ligature which was half rope and half venetian-blind cord. She was placed into the cooler just shortly after death. Inside the container was full unopened coke cans and liquid believed to have been melted ice. The Igloo cooler had been manufactured by the Igloo Company in St. Louis, Missouri and was shipped in a batch of 79 coolers to New York City area in the fall of 1990. The Coke cans were bottled by the Coca Cola Company at their plant in Dansbury, Connecticut, on June 18, 1991. From there the Coke cans were shipped to a distributor near the Hunt's Point Market in the Bronx who served only the Bronx and Manhattan. A witness told cops that while passing in a car on the Henry Hudson Parkway, she observed a well-dressed couple carrying a picnic cooler nine days before the body was found. On Friday, July 26th, the police receieved a call from a nervous sounding woman who only gave her name as "Judy Brown". She accidentally told the police she was in Werchester County which is just north of New York City. The woman was calling from a payphone and crowd sounds could be heard in the background. The woman stated she did not want to get involved but she revealed facts to the police. Later after the police asked publicly for Judy to come forward, a younger sounding woman called and said Judy did not want to get involved. It is alledged Judy owns a vehicle and was driving south on the Henry Hudson Parkway on the afternoon of July 14th. Police believe they may be looking for a male/female relationship of either a girlfriend/boyfriend, husband/wife. The child may have been abused by the mother's boyfriend or her father/step-father. It is thought the mother had full knowledge of the incidents but chose not to act for various reasons. In October of that year a batch of pornographic Polaroids of a girl with similar description were found on Route 46 in northern New Jersey, not far from the George Washington Bridge. Info in this case of a couple wanted for questioning were as follows:

Male, approximately 5'6", light brown complexion. Guessed to be Mexican or South American. Dark hair, at time age was in 40's, wore a light brown sports jacket. Female, approximately 5'6", light brown complexion. Guessed to be Mexican or South American. Shoulder-length dark hair, grey dress, high heels.

.......

http://www.websleuths.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-27432.html

[VXIII]

This is so very sad, baby girl I hope they find who did this to you, the person is out there and they know what they did, i HATE saying rest in peace to you, because there is no peace for you, who knows who you could have grown up to be, fuck webslueths, they dont know shit...

[witzah]

only reason i posted websleuths is because the case was so old...someone there had copied the case history from NCMEC website before they toned it down to its current bland info style. so the info i posted wasnt from websleuths!!! it kust was still available thru their site...but its a copy from the original posting from the missing child website. I'd never just post crap from a websleuth member here....i did wanna provide a source though. sorry for not specifying that in my earlier post....

[witzah]

found another older but comprehensive article from People...

http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20109250,00.html

NEW YORK CITY POLICE LIEUTENANT Joseph Reznick is standing on the shoulder of the Henry Hudson Parkway near the northern tip of Manhattan. He is peering down the wooded embankment along a faint path to the base of a tree. It was there, on July 23, 1991, that a road crew found a blue cooler containing the bound body of a 4-or 5-year-old girl. Lab reports subsequently said that Baby Hope, as the detectives in the 34th Precinct call her, had been beaten, starved, sexually abused and, finally, suffocated.

"I've been here a dozen times since we found her." says Reznick, his brow grooved with frustration, "and it's always the same. I try to get a sense about what prompted the killer to bring her here. And I wonder, why isn't someone calling about her? Don't people care anymore? This child didn't fall from the sky."

With over 100 homicides last year, the 34th Precinct, which embraces the Latino drug bazaar of northwest Manhattan, is the bloodiest in the city. But no homicide rankles the 23 detectives under Reznick's command like the Baby Hope case —the longest-standing open case in the country involving an unidentified murdered child. Det. Jerry Giorgio, for example, is a gregarious man. But ask him why they call the victim (who was nearly of school age) a baby, and you see a storm gather in his eyes. "She is a baby," he snaps. "Did it make it any more horrendous to find out she'd been sexually abused? Sure, because your imagination starts to work on what she was subjected to before being killed."

Fueled by anger, Giorgio, 58, the father of two grown children, and Det. Joe Neenan, 40, who has four kids at home, including a 2-year-old, have logged thousands of hours on the case. They have sifted the scant physical evidence, personally chased down close to 200 hot-line calls, worked up four different composite drawings and even dealt with spiritualists and psychics. In the process of pursuing their "baby," the detectives have located several other missing children, found themselves in the midst of fierce custody battles and inadvertently participated in at least one deadly drug feud.

Oddly, they thought at the outset that the case would be solved in a matter of days. There arc lots of unidentified adults in the morgue but virtually no children. "I know if my child goes out to play and doesn't come home," says Neenan, "I'm calling my neighbors, then the police."

Initially they had little to work with: the child's badly decomposed body—the medical examiner estimated that the 3'2" little girl had been in the cooler from five to 14 days—and the cooler itself. Unfortunately there were no fingerprints on either the cooler or the soda cans that had been laid over the body.

The first drawing of Baby Hope was worked up by a department artist, using morgue photos. It emphasized her prominent front teeth but made her look much older than 4 or 5. Still, run in newspapers and on TV, it elicited 66 calls in the first four days. (Current phone number: 212-927-0822)

One call, placed from a pay phone in Westchester County, just outside the city, still haunts the detectives. The woman said that on July 14 she and her family had been driving past the site where Baby Hope was found and had seen a Hispanic couple dressed in their Sunday best, walking north, carrying a blue cooler. But she would say no more.

When Giorgio pleaded with her to stay on the line, she agreed to call back using the pseudonym Judy Brown. But she never did. So a week later Giorgio placed a story in a Westchester paper, appealing for Judy Brown to contact him. "I got a call from a second woman, maybe the daughter," says Giorgio. "She said, 'Why do you want Judy Brown to call back?' I said, 'We have more questions.' She said, 'We've told you everything we know.' "

When it became obvious the women were not going to cooperate, Giorgio lost it. "I really let them have it," he says. "What person could be so cold-blooded not to get involved?"

Over the next several months, Neenan and Giorgio found plenty of people who were willing to pitch in. Organizations as various as a men's group from Long Island and the local Spanish-language newspaper El Diario offered rewards. Neighborhood merchants put Baby Hope's picture in their stores. About two dozen callers volunteered to pay for her burial, when the body is finally released by the medical examiner's office. "Every city agency, from child welfare to the board of education, has helped us," says Lieutenant Reznick.

Reznick decided to involve the schools one night after watching the movie Kindergarten Cop with his sons. "Schwarzenegger was trying to find a kid whose father was a drug dealer. So he said to them, 'Tell me something about your father.' We did this at several upper Manhattan schools. We had the teachers ask things like, 'Did you have a little cousin visiting you from the Dominican Republic who stayed a few weeks, then left?' "

Meanwhile, Neenan and Giorgio found themselves being sucked into the greater drama of the city. A disgruntled man, for example, called to say his son-in-law had killed his daughter's baby. "I mean, his description of the murder was so vivid, we felt like we were witnessing it," says Giorgio. "Finally we found this couple—nice kids who were trying to make it. The father-in-law turned out to be an alcoholic, a Dominican who didn't like his daughter marrying a Puerto Rican."

In another instance an informant revealed that someone was going around the neighborhood with a photo of a man said to be the killer. The family was supposedly going to pay a $15,000 reward if anyone would tell where he was. The detectives hopped in their cars, But it turned out the man in the photo was the target of a drug vendetta. Baby Hope was being used to smoke him out.

Then last October, the Baby Hope case seemed to be solved. Polaroids of a young girl performing a sex act on an unidentified male turned up in New Jersey, just across the George Washington Bridge. Newspaper headlines blared that Baby Hope had been identified. But Giorgio and Neenan were skeptical—the New Jersey girl was too old. Five weeks later the detectives found they were right. New Jersey police located the 12-year-old girl in the photo, still alive, and arrested her stepgrand-father. Says Neenan: "You're not going to believe what the Jersey girl's name was. Hope."

The detectives had to start all over again. "There had been headlines that Baby Hope had been found," says Giorgio. "But you didn't see any saying it wasn't Baby Hope. Then we got lucky in May when [the CBS news-documentary show] 48 Hours did a segment on the case."

The show brought a dozen calls, including one from a spiritualist in Indiana who said she had had a vision of the baby being kept in a basement by a Hispanic couple. This was the fourth woman with alleged extrasensory abilities to offer her services. "In this case," says Giorgio, "I'll deal with the devil himself if it means a solution.

Then this past July, after months of doldrums, the detectives got what they still hope is a break. Jogged by news reports on the anniversary of the case. a Westchester man called to say he remembered, two summers ago, seeing a dark, four-door sedan parked on the Henry Hudson and the back of a man with his arms wrapped around a blue cooler.

Neenan and Giorgio took the caller to a hypnotist, hoping the man would give them a license plate or a better description of the suspect. Instead he described another man, a witness, whom he said he had seen with the man with the cooler. "What makes this guy believable," says Neenan, "is we took hi in back to the scene, and we didn't stop the car. We said, 'You tell us when to stop.' He stopped us exactly at the spot."

.....

[witzah]

wonder if this is correct...but this article says there was some semen found in her vagina.

http://articles.latimes.com/1992-08-16/news/mn-6923_1_baby-hope

was wondering how they had evidence of sexual abuse since that heals and isn't visible unless caught in the 24-72 hour after abuse window (per doctors who examine kids at trauma centers ive had to question on this ).

when they pulled her up in '05 and got her dna, i wonder if they got his? and if he's just not in the system uet? could be if she's latino and her abuser went back to the other country (for some reason, dominican republic was considered?)

or mayne that was a mistake?

[Jerri Blank]

I just ran across this new article and shocked I missed this before, I'm totally horrified!
I hope she gets justice some day.
http://desmond.imageshack.us/Himg69/scaled.php?server=69&filename=grave1l.jpg&res=landing

Cops Re-open 1991 "Baby Hope" Cold Case
Posted Jul 24, 2012

Police have re-opened the "Baby Hope" cold case, hoping a new sketch will bring in tips.

It was on Tuesday, July 23 in 1991 that the body of a malnourished, 25-pound girl was found inside a blue and white cooler by the Henry Hudson Parkway. The cooler was on the embankment of the parkway, southbound of the Dyckman toll plaza, police said.

Investigators recently determined the girl was 4 to 4 1/2 years old, and had dark brown or black hair. Anyone who recognizes the girl in the police sketch is asked to contact Crime Stoppers at 800-577-TIPS or at nypdcrimestoppers.com.

http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Baby-Hope-Sketch-Cooler-Body-Girl-Henry-Hudson-Parkway-1991-Cold-Case-163618876.html

http://desmond.imageshack.us/Himg405/scaled.php?server=405&filename=1718056g.jpg&res=landing

[Obsolete]

wonder if this is correct...but this article says there was some semen found in her vagina.

http://articles.latimes.com/1992-08-16/news/mn-6923_1_baby-hope

was wondering how they had evidence of sexual abuse since that heals and isn't visible unless caught in the 24-72 hour after abuse window (per doctors who examine kids at trauma centers ive had to question on this ).when they pulled her up in '05 and got her dna, i wonder if they got his? and if he's just not in the system uet? could be if she's latino and her abuser went back to the other country (for some reason, dominican republic was considered?)

or mayne that was a mistake?

Huh? Scars from sexual abuse don't just heal and go away, and a hymen doesn't just grow back. I know of a child being examined 2 years after her abuse and the scars were still there.

[Valasca]

Letme check my records. I THINK several kids have been ruled out.

[AngelFire]

I hope they find who did this to this child. OMG the beginning of this thread fucked up my day even more.

[Jerri Blank]

Huh? Scars from sexual abuse don't just heal and go away, and a hymen doesn't just grow back. I know of a child being examined 2 years after her abuse and the scars were still there.
Agreed. Also from what I've read in the past when a person is raped then killed their vagina or rectum will remain dilated. Also long term abuse will do the same. In this case being it's a tiny child I can't see how that wouldn't be the situation here.


Letme check my records. I THINK several kids have been ruled out.
One list above was. Emily Nicole Ramirez was abducted by her non-custodial father from Greenville, Texas on December 11, 1991. She was found safe in April 2010.


I hope they find who did this to this child. OMG the beginning of this thread fucked up my day even more. I haven't stopped thinking about this case since I came across it. It reminds of Baby Lollipops. It's infuriating to me also that no one has claimed her in 20 years.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=laDACiMMS00&feature=player_embedded

[cubby]

I think that some of these children that are never claimed/identified are born to people who live off the grid, no one knows them, quite possibly the women are never seen at all, and then the children that are not wanted are sold/given away to whoever wants them, and that's usually folks who want them for throw away sex toys. I believe this is more common than us normal folks would ever want to know.

I'm glad the closest I can get to this kind of thng is in my imagination and that's bad enough.