Baby given name; death still mystery

This 1996 Gazette article was republished on Jan. 29, 2024, after recent developments.

For now, she's Baby Jane Lincoln.

The newborn girl, whose body was found Sunday in a barn along Highway 30, was named for the Lincoln Highway, the road's historic name.

Local residents on Monday joined in planning the baby's funeral.

"When you have somebody abandoned like this poor child was, you have to pull together to make it go," Tipton funeral director David Fry said.

Cedar County Sheriff Keith Whitlatch said the name was a collective effort.

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Unidentified people are normally called Jane or John Doe, but Whitlatch said "we wanted something that would give more identity to the baby."

Whitlatch reported few leads Monday afternoon in the effort to find the baby's parents and establish the circumstances of the child's death.

"Nothing real solid," Whitlatch said.

An appeal to motorists who may have noticed something late Saturday or early Sunday near the Tim Wilson and Clair Wilson farm, about a mile east of Tipton, yielded few solid leads.

"We've had some calls, but nothing real fruitful," Whitlatch said. "Early Sunday morning's probably the quietest time on that highway. The people we'd depend on (truckers) were not out there."

Whitlatch's Tipton office — (319) 886-2121 — is still accepting tips in the case, as well as donations for Baby Jane's headstone.

The full-term Caucasian baby's body, wrapped in a plastic shopping bag and placed inside a garbage bag, was discovered about 10 a.m. Sunday by Clair Wilson, who lives on the farm with his son, Tim; Tim's wife, Debbie; and their son, Luke, 15. The body was left inside a barn used for machinery storage.

Preliminary autopsy results showed the baby was alive when it was born. Whitlatch said he expects a full report, possibly fixing the cause of death, later this week.

Using body temperature, detectives estimate the child could have been placed in the barn as late as 6 a.m. Luke Wilson was the last family member to retire, shortly after midnight.

Tim Wilson said the family's black Labrador was disturbed a few hours later.

"He was barking his head off between 2:30 and 3, but we came to the conclusion that was probably our paper being delivered," Wilson said.

Whitlatch said every law enforcement agency in Iowa has been alerted.

"The crime scene may be anywhere else," he said. "It definitely wasn't anywhere near where the body was."

Hospitals across the state have been asked to report any unexplained admissions, he said.

"We have had a couple (of) calls back from other hospitals but nothing that's real fruitful," Whitlatch said, adding he thinks the Wilson farm was chosen for its location.

"I think they were just the unfortunate recipients," Whitlatch said. "If you go east on 30, there's not too many buildings too close (to the road)."

Whitlatch said the bags in which the body was found may yield some clues.

"There's always a chance of fingerprints, and if the person is in the criminal justice system, we might get a name there," he said.

Whitlatch said he had not seen the inner bag, but was told it had some type of wording that might yield a clue. The words were not part of a trade name or store name, he said.

Whitlatch said there are only superficial similarities between Sunday's death and the Aug. 17 discovery of a newborn's body in a restroom at the Brea Z Lake Campground south of Tipton. Cedar County Attorney Lee Beine decided not to press charges against the 12-year-old mother in that case.

"Other than the bodies being a newborn baby, there's very little similarity," Whitlatch said. "The other one, the mother was identified quite quickly, and there was a lot of people around."

As for himself, Whitlatch said the cases "definitely take their toll on you. Here's another baby that's never going to cry."

The Fry Funeral Home of Tipton is handling arrangements for the baby's funeral, set for 1 p.m. Thursday at New Horizon Cemetery in rural Tipton. The Rev. Frank Heubner of Cedar Street Baptist Church volunteered to conduct the rites.

"You want to do what you can," Heubner said. "There's not a whole lot that can be done. I guess in a situation like this we're just trying what we can (to) bring some sort of hope and encouragement."

"I hope they can find something before the funeral, especially the mother," Tim Wilson said. "The mother's got to be hurting."