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While talking to police, she also “admitted to a similar crime two years prior,” Sheriff Scott Hildenbrand of the Geauga County Sheriff’s Office said at a press conference Thursday.
On Thursday,a grand jury indicted her for murder and aggravated murder, local station WGN 9 reports.
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The woman, who is still married to the newborn’s father, allegedly admitted her crime without showing any emotion, say authorities.
It is unclear whether the father knew she was pregnant or had allegedly disposed of two newborns.
“Over 26 years ago, Gail Eastwood-Ritchey left her biological child for dead,” Sheriff Scott Hildenbrand of the Geauga County Sheriff’s Office said at a press conference Thursday.
“She really had no emotion as far as that’s concerned.”
Familial DNA Led Police to Suspect
In September 2018, the sheriff’s office decided to use new advances in DNA technology and genetic genealogy to track down the suspect after authorities in California had successfully apprehendedGolden State Killer Joseph James DeAngelousing the same methods just five months earlier.
After identifying potential family members, detectives asked some of the 1,400 potential relatives on a family tree they constructed tosubmit DNA or to allow them to use DNAthey had voluntarily submitted to an online database, said Geauga County Detective Donald Seamon,The Washington Postand the Associated Press report.
Two weeks ago, detectives executed a search warrant to obtain Eastwood-Ritchey’s DNA, Seamon said,The Washington Postand the AP report.
Eastwood-Ritchey has not yet entered a plea. She is expected to be arraigned on Friday. It is unclear whether she has retained an attorney who can speak on her behalf.
She is being held in the Geauga County Jail. She faces life in prison if convicted.
The “Geauga Child” case is the 51st in the nationthat was solved using the technology, Hildebrand said, Cleveland.com reports.
source: people.com
