Murder of Alisha Heinrich

According to numerous witnesses, in the early hours of December 3, 1982[7] a female toddler was seen in the area of Moss Point, Mississippi, in the company of a young adult female presumed to have been her mother and who had been carrying this toddler in her arms. These sightings had occurred on both Mississippi State Highway 63 and, later, the National Interstate 10, close to the state border of Alabama.[8][9][10][7] The woman carrying this child had been wearing a blue plaid shirt and blue jeans, and was last seen walking west along Interstate 10, close to the truck scales at the Alabama-Mississippi border sometime between midnight and one o'clock in the morning of December 3. Reportedly, this woman had been in an acute state of distress, but had ardently refused any offers of help from passing vehicles. These eyewitness reports subsequently given to investigators would further be corroborated by accounts from a woman who had been monitoring CB radio conversations between truck drivers early in the morning of December 3, and who stated to investigators numerous truck drivers had been raising what she termed a "boatload of hell" regarding an obviously distressed woman walking along Interstate 10 with a barefoot, coatless female toddler in her arms and who had repeatedly refused any offers of assistance from passing vehicles.[6][11] It is believed that the toddler in this woman's company may have been the victim subsequently recovered from the river.[7]

An autopsy performed on the child's body revealed that someone had attempted to smother her before she had entered the river, although the child had still been alive when she had entered the water,[18] having inhaled murky water from the river into her lungs, thus indicating she had ultimately died of drowning.[6] The official cause of death would be certified as drowning due to her having inhaled water upon impacting the surface of the river.[11] Investigators would also conclude she had been intentionally deposited into the river from the eastbound I-10 bridge, very likely having been thrown into the river by the woman seen carrying her two days prior to her discovery (with this woman possibly believing the child had died via the act of smothering).[2]

In life, Delta Dawn had been a healthy toddler, with her age estimated to have been between the ages of one and two years old, most likely being between 18 months and two years of age. Twelve of her milk teeth had erupted at the time of her death, which influenced this age estimation. The girl was Caucasian, with curly strawberry-blond hair,[7] and has been described as being markedly beautiful in appearance.[11] Because the child's body had lain in the river for approximately 36 to 48 hours prior to her discovery, her eyes had clouded to such a degree that determining their precise color was very difficult, although it is believed they had been either blue or brown.[7][6] Despite the elemental damage to the eyes, her face was described as being in a "recognizable" condition.[12] She was around two feet six inches in height, weighed around 25 pounds and although no food was found in her stomach, she showed no signs of having been malnourished.[12] The girl wore a pink and white Cradle Togs checkered dress, decorated with three flowers on its front, along with a diaper.[7][11]

Extensive searches were conducted to find the body of the woman seen floating face-down within the Escatawpa River on December 5; equal efforts have been made to locate and/or identify the acutely distressed woman seen walking along Interstate 10 carrying a barefooted child in her arms on December 3, should the body sighted by the truck driver actually not have been hers.[7][2] All efforts proved fruitless. Several scenarios surrounding the death of Delta Dawn have been theorized, with the most common contemporary assertion being that the woman seen with the toddler was the child's mother, who had either accidentally or intentionally caused the child's death before subsequently committing suicide.[6]

Following the discovery of Delta Dawn, newspapers throughout the country published stories of the discovery of the child's body, and the sightings on Interstate 10 two days previously. These stories often featured contemporary forensic facial reconstructions of how the child had most likely appeared in life. All initial efforts proved unsuccessful with ascertaining the identity of Delta Dawn via this technique.[2] A contemporary report of a woman who informed sheriff's deputies that she had "given away" her child to a group of men was originally connected to the case by the investigating officers, although these investigators rapidly determined that the subject requesting assistance had a male child, thus enabling investigators to quickly determine this report as being impertinent to this case.[11]

In 2009, the body of Delta Dawn was exhumed in order that investigators could obtain a DNA sample from her body which could be entered into both the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children databases for comparison with nationwide unsolved murders and missing person reports. Initially, no DNA match with Delta Dawn or the individual believed to have been her mother was obtained.[21]

Two forensic facial reconstructions of Delta Dawn prior to her 2020 identification. The most recent rendering (right) was created in 2014.[3]

With advances in technology, several forensic facial reconstructions of the child were created in the years following the discovery of her body in ongoing efforts to identify her. The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children also released two illustrations depicting potential likenesses as to how Delta Dawn may have physically appeared in her life; other forensic artists also produced their own renderings in efforts to discover her identity.[7][6]

On December 4, 2020, Jackson County Sheriff's Office announced the identification of Delta Dawn as 18-month-old Alisha Ann Heinrich of Joplin, Missouri. Her identity was confirmed via DNA sequencing and genetic genealogy,[22][1] with the child's DNA linked to family members in Missouri, where her mother, Gwendolyn Mae Clemons, had previously lived. The process of generating a profile suitable for uploading into a public genealogy database was performed by a lab operated by Othram; the research was conducted by forensic genealogists under Redgrave Research Forensic Services.[14]

Gwendolyn Clemons had recently divorced from the father of her daughter. She, her daughter, and an unnamed boyfriend had reportedly disappeared "on or around" November 24, 1982, from the family's residence in Kansas City, Missouri.[4][5] The intent of their departure was to relocate to the state of Florida, with Clemons informing her relatives of her intentions to start life afresh in this state.[23] The boyfriend later returned to Missouri alone. This man, now deceased, has been described as both a "person of interest" and a suspect in various media reports.[24][22]

The circumstances surrounding Alisha's death, and the simultaneous disappearance of her mother, remain under active investigation by the Jackson County Sheriff's department.[3] Investigators remain uncertain as to Clemons' ultimate fate. At a press conference held on December 4, 2020, Sheriff Mike Ezell informed reporters: "We do not know if she is dead or alive at this point. We're assuming the worst, but we don't know that for sure."[22]

Prior to the Jackson County Sheriff's Department's formal announcement of the identity of Delta Dawn as Alisha Ann Heinrich, the previously unknown woman accompanying the child upon the eastbound Interstate 10 bridge was theorized to have been responsible for her death in a suspected murder-suicide, although this theory is now in doubt.[6]

• Evans, Colin (1996). The Casebook of Forensic Detection: How Science Solved 100 of the World's Most Baffling Crimes. New York: John Wiley & Sons Inc. ISBN 0-471-07650-3.
• Halber, Deborah (2015). The Skeleton Crew: How Amateur Sleuths Are Solving America's Coldest Cases. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-1-451-65758-6.
• Meyer, Cheryl; Oberman, Michelle; White, Kelly (2001). Mothers who Kill Their Children. New York University Press. ISBN 0-814-75643-3
• Newton, Michael (2004). The Encyclopedia of Unsolved Crimes. New York: Facts on File. ISBN 978-0-816-07818-9.

• 2011 iReport pertaining to the case
• 2014 Tufts Magazine article pertaining to the murder
• 2020 article detailing the identification of Alisha Heinrich
• Alisha Heinrich at The Doe Network