Former Iowa City woman extradited, formally charged in 1992 infant death

IOWA CITY — A former Iowa City woman, who disposed of her newborn son in a trash receptacle and then the infant was unknowingly taken to the landfill in 1992, was formally charged Thursday in Johnson County District Court.

Cindy Sue Elder, 58, formerly known as Cindy Eckrich, was extradited Wednesday from Christian County in Missouri, to Iowa City. Elder had an initial appearance Thursday and was formally charged with first-degree murder in the death of her infant.

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Investigators believe she disposed of the baby in 1992, shortly after giving birth in basement of a residence she was living at the time in Iowa City, according to a criminal complaint. Elder was 26 at the time and had concealed her pregnancy from the father of the child and her family and friends.

A judge ordered a $1 million cash only bail for Elder pending her trial, which hasn’t been set at this time.

Assistant Johnson County Attorney Haley Huddleston and an assistant Iowa attorney general will prosecute the case, Johnson County Attorney Rachel Zimmermann Smith told The Gazette on Friday.

According to court documents, the full-term infant — a white male with brown hair and blue eyes — was found in an Iowa City landfill Dec. 21, 1992 by workers. The baby had been unknowingly picked up by a trash collector from a receptacle near an apartment building at 712 Fifth St. in Coralville.

The baby had extensive blunt force injuries that appeared to happen after his death. The placenta was still attached and wrapped around the child’s neck, according to the complaint.

When the baby was found, an autopsy showed the cause and manner of death were ruled undetermined because the “the lack of known circumstances surrounding the labor and delivery of this infant make it impossible at this time,” the complaint stated.

The 33-year-old cold case was solved with advanced DNA testing developed by Othram in The Woodlands, Texas. The Iowa Attorney General’s Office reached out to Othram in 2021 for help on this case. Othram developed the advanced DNA testing — forensic-grade genome sequencing — in 2018.

Iowa City Police investigators hadn’t been able to identify the infant because the DNA tissue sample was “degraded and contaminated.” The advanced testing helped investigators identify the “Johnson County John Doe (1992),” as he was initially known in the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, or NamUs, after using genealogy to piece together a familial connection, Michael Vogen, director of case management at Othram told The Gazette earlier this month.

The results of the DNA led investigators to Elder in 2022. She told police she didn’t want to be a parent and hid her pregnancy from everyone, including the father of the baby. She never went to a doctor for prenatal care and attempted to induce a miscarriage by punching herself in the stomach, according to the complaint.

She gave birth to the baby in the basement of an Iowa City residence and told police the baby was born alive and crying, the complaint stated. She “did something” to keep the baby quiet so no one in the house heard any crying. She then put the baby in a bag and dropped off the bag in an outdoor trash receptacle near her father’s apartment at 712 Fifth St. in Coralville.

The father of the infant told police he wasn’t aware of Elder’s pregnancy or that she had given birth.

DNA process

Othram’s specialized process was able to produce a comprehensive “beautiful” DNA profile of the infant, Vogen said. The advanced process goes beyond the traditional DNA process of STR — short tandem repeat — testing that looks at 24 markers of DNA. Those are typically uploaded into the FBI CODIS database and used to identify suspects by matching DNA found at crime scenes to convicted offenders.

Vogen said those 24 markers have a limitation because they can only match DNA to a close family member’s DNA, but with Othram’s process they look at “half a million” or more markers, which collect “infinitely” more DNA data. It can detect back to a sixth or seventh cousin for a genealogist to build a family tree, giving investigators more possible connections to build back to the family line where the DNA originated.

Othram has a genealogy department that can help law enforcement, but many investigators are familiar with the process and don’t need the company’s services for that piece of it, Vogen said. In this case, the Iowa Attorney General’s Office and the Iowa City Police Department had that knowledge and conducted their own investigation after Othram provided the testing data, he said.

The advanced testing has been used on thousands of cases since it was developed, producing about 500 publicly named cases with results, Vogen said.

Trish Mehaffey covers state and federal courts for The Gazette

Comments: (319) 398-8318; trish.mehaffey@thegazette.com