The Murder of Baby Jane Doe
Baby Jane Doe
She has no name. She was found on June 25, 1998, in a black trash bag near Fisher Lake in Longview, Texas, and for 27 years she was known only as Baby Jane Doe, NamUs case UP13675. She was a newborn girl who appeared to have been born healthy. She had dark brown hair.
The autopsy found evidence that she had been beaten to death, with significant trauma to her skull. She was alive when she came into the world. She was given no chance at life. We do not know her birthday, her full name, or what she might have become. We know she existed, that she was real, and that she deserved to live.
The community of Longview held a memorial service for her. Women gathered at Grace Hill Cemetery on July 10, 1998, wiping tears, listening to a pastor, mourning a baby they had never met. She was buried there. She was not forgotten by the people of Longview, even when justice was slow in coming. The case was entered into the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System in 2015. In 2025, she finally got a step toward justice.
| Known As | Baby Jane Doe |
| NamUs ID | UP13675 |
| Found | June 25, 1998 |
| Buried | Grace Hill Cemetery, Longview -- July 10, 1998 |
| Hair | Dark Brown |
What We Know
On June 25, 1998, workers near Fisher Lake in Longview, Texas, found a black trash bag and called police. Inside was the body of a newborn girl. She appeared to have been born healthy. The autopsy found she had been beaten to death, with significant trauma to her skull. The manner of death was ruled homicide. She was given the name Baby Jane Doe by investigators.
Longview Police conducted an extensive investigation and made public appeals for information. Despite those efforts they were unable to identify the child or locate her parents. She was buried at Grace Hill Cemetery in Longview on July 10, 1998, following a community memorial service attended by Longview residents who came to pay their respects to a child no one could name. In March 2015 the case was formally entered into the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System as UP13675.
In May 2025, with funding provided by Project 525, the Longview Police Department submitted preserved forensic evidence from the original 1998 investigation to Othram, a private DNA laboratory in The Woodlands, Texas that specializes in forensic-grade genome sequencing on degraded and trace evidence. Othram scientists developed a DNA extract and used Forensic-Grade Genome Sequencing to build a comprehensive genetic profile for the baby. Othram's in-house forensic genetic genealogy team then conducted a genealogical database search and developed investigative leads that identified a possible parent. Those leads pointed detectives to Misty Marie Mitchell of Longview, then 47 years old. When investigators interviewed Mitchell she admitted to being the child's mother. She was 19 years old at the time of the baby's death in 1998.
27 Years to Justice
How She Was Found
The original 1998 investigation was thorough. Longview Police collected evidence at the scene, conducted an autopsy, and made multiple public appeals for information. Nothing led to an identification. The case eventually went cold, but it was never closed. Evidence was preserved.
In 2025, Longview Police detectives working through their unsolved cold case backlog identified this case as a candidate for modern forensic DNA technology. With funding provided by Project 525, a nonprofit organization dedicated to solving cold cases through DNA technology, they submitted the preserved evidence to Othram, a private forensic laboratory in The Woodlands, Texas. Othram specializes in Forensic-Grade Genome Sequencing, a technique that can build comprehensive DNA profiles from trace quantities of degraded evidence that older technologies cannot process.
Othram scientists successfully developed a DNA extract from the 27-year-old evidence and built a full genetic profile for the baby. Othram's forensic genetic genealogy team then conducted a genealogical database search, cross-referencing the profile against available DNA databases to find relatives. That search produced investigative leads that identified Misty Marie Mitchell as a possible parent of the child.
Longview detectives interviewed Mitchell. She admitted to being the child's mother. Based on that admission she was arrested and charged with capital murder of a person under 10 years of age. Colby Lasyone, Chief of Staff at Othram, said the case sends a clear message that modern technology means crimes like this can be solved no matter how much time has passed.
The Accused
She Is Not Forgotten
She never got a name. She lived for only days. She was put in a trash bag and left in a field near Fisher Lake. She was a real person, a real baby girl with dark brown hair, born healthy, and she deserved every bit of the life she was never given.
The women of Longview who gathered at Grace Hill Cemetery on July 10, 1998, knew that. They came to mourn a child none of them knew, because someone had to. They wept for her. They said goodbye for her. They did not let her slip away unmourned. That act of collective love for a stranger is something worth remembering.
For 27 years she lay in that cemetery without justice. The investigators who kept her case active, who entered her into NamUs, who eventually submitted her DNA to Othram, who kept working, honored her too. Justice came slowly. It came.
She still does not have a name. If she had lived she would be 27 years old. We do not know who she would have been. We know she mattered. We say it plainly: she mattered. She is not forgotten.
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