"Baby Hope" of Medina County Identified Through Forensic Genetic Genealogy
FOUNTAIN VALLEY, CA / ACCESSWIRE / November 21, 2023 / "Baby Hope" was discovered deceased by a rancher on September 20th 2004 in brush along County Road 448 in Hondo, Texas.
In 2022, the Medina County Sheriff's Office reached out to Identifinders International for assistance in identifying the parents of "Baby Hope". Later that year, Senior Forensic Genetic Genealogist Misty Gillis returned an investigative lead that the mother of the infant was related to a specific family in Hondo, Texas.
The Medina County Sheriff's Office collected family samples based on the lead and were able to positively identify the mother as Maricela Valles Frausto (née Flores) of Hondo, Texas. "Baby Hope's" father was also identified and found to have no connection with abandoning the infant.
According to Sheriff Randy Brown, "The day this sweet little perfect baby girl was discovered , she was etched in the hearts and minds of all the Officers involved and soon after the community. That night on that county road, she was named, "Baby Hope" with "Hope" and a prayer that we would find who was responsible for this horrible, horrible crime. A promise was made that day to never forget and to never give up. Since that day, that promise was never broken. Many hands have touched this case, all with one goal, to know why and who was responsible for dumping this beautiful little girl on the side of a county road. The days, the months, the years, and all the hours spent on this case do not equal the amount of love and compassion the community poured out for Baby Hope Medina, including the outstanding work done by IDENTIFINDERS INTERNATIONAL. Thank you for everything you all did with DNA profiling to identify the biological mother of Baby Hope and a special thank you to SEASON OF JUSTICE for the generous support with grant funding used for DNA profiling. Today, 19 years, 2 months and 1 day later, the promise made that day, is complete, with the arrest of Maricela V Frausto, the biological mother of Baby Hope Medina, charged with Capital Murder."
"We are happy to assist the Medina County Sheriff's Office to help give Baby Hope her name and her identity. Cases like this make all our hard work worthwhile" said Dr. Colleen Fitzpatrick, President of Identifinders.
To make a donation towards Identifinders International cold case work, please visit the Daniel Paul Armantrout Fund. Identifinders offers a fee-based forensic service to work with law enforcement agencies and medical examiners to apply forensic genetic genealogy to solving violent crime cold cases and to identify unidentified human remains. For more information, please visit www.identifinders.com. For Media Relations contact [email protected].
Contact:
Misty Gillis
Phone: (312) 285-1578
E-mail: [email protected]
SOURCE: Identifinders International LLC