Cold case: Cairns mother allegedly confessed to 1996 mutilation killing of her baby to friend

TWENTY years ago a dog found the top half of a newborn baby’s severed body in a creek. Now police believe they know who was responsible.

The baby was unidentified when his remains were buried in 1996.

MORE than two decades after a neighbourhood dog alerted police to the grisly death of a baby boy, Cairns police say they finally know who the newborn’s mother — and alleged killer — is.

It was about 8.40am on May 4, 1996, when a resident of suburban Moorabool, in the Far North Queensland city’s west, saw a dog playing with something in his yard.

On closer inspection, the man made the most horrifying of discoveries.

The dog had retrieved the severed top half of a baby’s torso from a nearby creek, where police believe the infant was dumped after he was drowned in a toilet and dismembered shortly after he entered the world.

The gruesome death occurred within 48 hours of the boy’s birth, police knew.

What they did not know, and what remained unknown for more than 20 years, was who the baby’s mother was.

It took until December 2016, for a potential crucial piece of the puzzle to fall into place.

Police will allege it was a confidante of the baby’s mother who finally provided them with the breakthrough they needed, a key piece of evidence she had held onto for many years.

Northern Region Detective Superintendent Geoff Marsh said despite huge advances in DNA technology since the baby died, forensic evidence could still not determine his parentage.

“Advances in DNA testing and analysis have improved dramatically over the years but that being said, all efforts until December 2016 had failed to identify the parentage of the child,” he said.

“It was only with the information coming from the community and that person coming to assist us, the 43-year-old lady resulted in a positive analysis at this time.”

Police will allege DNA from a 43-year-old Cairns woman matched that of the infant.

On Sunday, she was charged with manslaughter, misconduct with a corpse and concealing the birth of a child.

Supt Marsh said the woman had allegedly held onto her friend’s secret for many years, despite a decade-long reward of $250,000 on offer.

He said the case had never been closed, despite an unsuccessful murder charge laid against an older woman in 2008.

Violet Flora Evans was committed to stand trial for the baby’s murder in 2009, with the Crown contending at the time she was the baby’s mother.

The committal hearing was told that Evans had confessed to bearing the child after an affair, however, the Director of Public Prosecutions dropped the charge before she went to trial, citing a lack of evidence.

The baby’s mother’s confidante finally came forward last year, after renewed appeals for information in the cold case.

“(She’s) a person known to the lady and the lady had divulged to (her) some time ago in relation to the incident,” Supt Marsh said.

“Peoples’ personal circumstances change over time and in this instance, it was the prompting of the latest appeal for public assistance which generated this latest information.”

Forensic evidence told police much about the baby’s death but could not tell them the identity of his mother.

At Evans’ committal hearing in Cairns Magistrates Court in 2009, the court heard a post-mortem examination concluded the infant was drowned in a toilet due to the presence of faecal matter in his lungs.

A sharp object was apparently used to cut the infant’s body in half, before his remains were dumped in a creek.

The lower part of his body was never found.

The 43-year-old mother was due to appear in court to formally face the charges for the first time on Monday.

The Queensland Director of Public Prosecutions will determine if the $250,000 reward that remains on offer for information leading to the successful prosecution of the case will apply.