Grave of Baby Jane Doe finally marked, nearly 40 years after her body was found in Northern Maine
The baby's body was found in 1985 and her mother pleaded guilty in 2023.
By Adam Bartow
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BANGOR, Maine (WMTW) — Nearly 40 years after the body of a baby known for decades as Baby Jane Doe was found abandoned in a gravel pit in Frenchville, a committal service has been held and a stone has been placed to mark her grave.
The body of the girl now known as Lily Janelle, AKA Baby Jane Doe, was found on Dec. 7, 1985, in sub-zero temperatures by a local dog, who then carried the body to the couple who owned it.
For 37 years, police worked to identify the girl and whomever left her body there.
In June 2022, thanks to genetic genealogy, Lee Ann Daigle, who was 58 at the time, was arrested at her home in Lowell, Massachusetts and charged with the murder of her daughter.
In April 2023, Daigle pleaded guilty to manslaughter in Aroostook County Superior Court.
State police say the detectives who investigated the case called the baby “Lily”, which means innocence. The young couple whose dog found the body said that if they had been given the chance to adopt her, they would have called her “Janelle”, which means gift from God. State Police say Baby Jane Doe then became Lily Janelle.
Maine State Police detectives worked with the Mount Pleasant Catholic Cemetery in Bangor to find the baby’s unmarked grave and then coordinated with the Maine State Troopers Foundation, Mays Funeral Home in Calais, and Smet Monuments in New Brunswick, Canada, to fund, design, and carve a new gravestone to honor Lily Janelle.
On August 5, the troopers and detectives who responded to the case in 1985, along with current state police personnel, prosecutors who tried the case, cemetery workers, and others involved in the investigation gathered in Bangor to set her new gravestone and witness a committal service.
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