A MOTHER who allegedly left her newborn twin newborns to die in a trash can 17 years ago has been charged with murder after cops tracked her down using a DNA sample.
Antoinette Briley, 41, was arrested during a traffic stop after authorities located her in Oak Lawn, Illinois, Cook County Sheriff’s office said.
Briley has been charged with murdering her infant twin boys, whose bodies were found in garbage bins in an alleyway in Stickney Township, Illinois on June 6, 2003.
A waste management employee discovered their remains at the time while emptying the garbage cans, the Chicago Tribune reported.
An autopsy determined they were born alive and died of asphyxiation and their deaths were ruled as homicides.
But the case went cold after police could not locate the dead babies’ mother.
Then, in 2018, authorities reopened the investigation and used DNA evidence from the scene to track her down.
Genetic genealogy research identified Briley as the potential mother and investigators traveled to her home Holland.
Here they collected her DNA from a discarded cigarette butt after watching her smoke.
The samples matched and she was arrested in Cook County after authorities received a tip-off on her whereabouts.
Briley appeared in Leighton Criminal Court yesterday, where prosecutors alleged she had quietly given birth in the bathtub of her grandparents’ home.
Cook County Assistant State’s Attorney Dominique Marshall told the court Briley had said “both [babies] crying when they were born, but not crying so loud that neighbors could hear”.
She then “panicked” and placed them in a duffel bag, intent on driving the baby boys to the hospital, before deciding to dump them instead.
One of the babies was found with its placenta still attached.
Briley, who would have been 24 at the time of the alleged killings, had allegedly placed the boys in the bin before driving back home where she showered and got into bed.
Briley was appointed a public defender, Courtney Smallwood.
She revealed her client is the mom of a 12-year-old girl who does not pose a threat or a flight risk.
She is being held on $15,000 bond and is set to appear in court again next week.
