Mother arrested for mysterious 2018 case of newborn found dead in ocean

PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. – On Thursday, Florida officials announced the arrest of a woman responsible for the death of a newborn four-and-a-half years ago that has, until now, been a cold case. 

On June 1, 2018, an off-duty firefighter found the body of a days-old infant floating in the ocean. She was dubbed “Baby June,” and efforts were exhausted for over four years to identify her mother. Rewards were posted for information and investigators scoured newborn registries to no avail—until the use of investigative genealogy allowed officials to identify a close relative of Baby June.

“We rebuilt the family tree and identified the close relatives, and then established the link to our suspect today,” said Julie Sikorsky, the supervisor of the Palm Beach County forensic biology unit.

Investigators were able to find the father of the child, who reportedly “knew nothing about [the] baby” and who told officials that the girl’s mother had told him her pregnancy had been “taken care of.”

Officials were able to identify Arya Singh, 28, as the mother of Baby June, and the person solely responsible for her death.

Singh was taken into custody Thursday and will be charged with first-degree murder, according to Dave Aronberg, the state attorney for Palm Beach County.