Newstrack: No progress in 1996 case of dead Iowa baby

Almost six months after law enforcement publicly named the parents of a baby who was found dead on a farm near Lisbon in 1996, no new information has been found and the case appears to be cold once again.

Background

Baby Jane Lincoln — named because she was found in a barn on old Lincoln Highway — was found dead, wrapped in a plastic shopping bag, on Nov. 10, 1996, by farmer Clair Wilson. Wilson found her in a barn used to store machinery about a mile east of Lisbon.

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There weren’t many leads on the case at the time. But in January, the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation and the Cedar County Sheriff’s Office released the names of the baby’s parents — which they had discovered using DNA testing.

Clair Wilson’s grandson, Luke Wilson, was the baby’s father and a woman named Samantha Light Hope was the baby’s mother. Both were teenagers at the time.

DNA testing was conducted on the child in 2010 as part of a cold case grant. The sheriff’s office has been working on the case with the DCI for the past couple years, and was able to get a DNA sample from Luke Wilson to compare. Authorities said Light Hope did not cooperate with the investigation, but eventually they got a DNA sample from a sibling of hers, which they used to identify Light Hope as the child’s mother.

What’s happened since

An autopsy performed in 1996 determined the baby was alive when she was born. But the method used in that autopsy is no longer considered reliable.

Officials now are trying to determine if the child was born dead or was abandoned alive and died of exposure, according to Cedar County Sheriff Warren Wethington.

Wethington said he was hoping that releasing the names of the parents would spur anyone who may have additional information about the case to come forward. But now, six months later, there has been no progress on the case.

Wethington said that unless someone comes forward with more information, or Light Hope decides to cooperate with investigators, the question likely never will be solved.

“At this time we are at a standstill. The statute of limitations has run out on everything but a murder. At this time, we are not able to prove the baby ever took a breath,” Wethington said.

Anyone with information about the case can call the Iowa DCI Missing Person Information Clearinghouse at (515) 725-6036.

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