"Baby Hope" was born alive and left for dead. Fishermen found the newborn girl's body in the Arkansas River in Pueblo County on Aug. 24, 1996.
An autopsy determined she drowned.
She was buried in Mountain View Cemetery - and the case went cold for more than two decades.
In October 2019, a fresh analysis of the baby's DNA led detectives to a suspect. Her name was LeeAnne Hed, 52, of Pueblo West. She refused to cooperate.
Days later her body was found in an auto set alight at the parking lot of the Southern Colorado Gaming & Events Center. She took her own life, too.
Investigators determined Hed "was solely responsible for the death of Baby Hope based on facts and evidence collected throughout the entire case," according to the Pueblo County Sheriff's Office.
The Pueblo County case was eerily similar to another infant's death - discovered that very same day, Aug. 24, 1996 - about 190 miles to the north in Larimer County. It was dubbed the "Baby Faith" mystery.
Two boys found day-old Faith's tiny body at Horsetooth Reservoir.
The tragic baby girl "suffocated after being wrapped in a plastic garbage bag," according to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation's cold case unit.
The Baby Faith case also went cold until 2019 when fresh DNA evidence led investigators to the neonate's mother, a Larimer County woman who pleaded guilty to criminally negligent homicide.
[Photo: Wikimedia]
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