A woman who pleaded guilty to leaving her newborn to die on the banks of the Mississippi River in 2003 was sentenced to 27 years in prison on Friday.
Just last year, investigators connected Jennifer Lynn Matter, 51, of Red Wing, to the infant boy found on a beach along Lake Pepin in December 2003. They had attempted to find a DNA match to the child for years, the Star Tribune previously reported.
Matter pleaded guilty to one charge of second-degree intentional murder in January. Court records indicate a second charge of murder without intent was dismissed.
According to court documents, Matter went into labor in 2003 on a beach along the river in Frontenac. "Matter stated that it was dark outside, it was cold, that she did not look to see the gender of the child, and that she remembered leaving the baby on the beach before driving away," the complaint read.
The boy was found unclothed with his umbilical cord attached and wrapped around the middle of his body, according to the complaint.
Matter was also linked by DNA with the death of another infant, investigators said last year — a newborn girl found floating in a Red Wing boat harbor in 1999 — but she has never been charged in connection with that death.
According to court documents, Matter admitted to police that she was drinking heavily around the time she was pregnant with the girl, and did not know she was pregnant. When she gave birth unexpectedly at home, the baby wasn't breathing. Matter said she "freaked out" and drove the child to Bay Point Park, where she left the girl.
