Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Dead baby in Ariz. believed to be Meegans’

Cowboys rounding up horses in the desert discovered the dead infant on the side of a dirt road.

It had been burned and thrown into a ravine a half-mile off Interstate 17, halfway between Phoenix and Flagstaff, Ariz.

An autopsy revealed that the baby girl died a violent death and was beaten or shaken to death, said Yavapai County Sheriff's Department spokeswoman Lauri Hadley. The coroner determined the baby had been left there about a week earlier.

The infant, listed as "Baby Jane Doe," was found Oct. 9, 1990. She had been set afire when she was already dead after being doused with gasoline or a gasoline-like substance, Hadley said. The infant was wearing a diaper, light green pants, a red, white and blue T-shirt and was wrapped in a blanket.

The girl, determined to be 10 months to 2 years old, had two teeth, dark hair, was white with dark or olive skin. A complete print was taken of the right foot and there was enough tissue and blood for a DNA sample to be done.

Yavapai County deputies launched an exhaustive two-year search to find out who the baby was, Hadley said.

"At the time, we sent out information nationwide for law enforcement," Hadley said.

Stories about the baby were aired on "Unsolved Mysteries," "America's Most Wanted" and "Inside Edition."

Detectives also checked "thousands of babies born at that time who might be missing and came up with nothing," Hadley said. "It was a nonstop case. We worked every lead for two years, literally thousands of leads. We got thousands of phone calls. We never got a legitimate lead, 'til now."

Five years later, Metro Police arrested James and Lillian Meegan of Las Vegas and charged the 39-year-old father with murder and the mother, 35, with child neglect after police learned that the couple's 11-month-old baby, Francine, had been missing since the fall of 1990. No body was found.

Hadley said a Yavapai detective's wife read a newspaper story from Las Vegas about the missing Las Vegas baby.

"She brought the article in and said, 'Hey, guys, I bet this is your Baby Jane Doe,'" Hadley said.

A Metro Police affidavit refers to a statement from one of James Meegan's friends that the defendant confessed to shaking the infant to death by the neck in a fit of anger when she wouldn't stop crying. She was last seen wrapped in a blanket and carried out the front door of the family's home by James Meegan.

Francine's existence wasn't known to the Meegans' friends, neighbors or even the baby's grandmother because the Meegans had adopted her out to a Southern California couple for nine months when the baby was 2 days old.

But James Meegan halted the proceedings when the couple, who had paid the Meegans $30,000, couldn't come up with more money. The couple returned the baby. Two months later, she was missing, police said.

Hadley said Yavapai investigators are confident they've solved their case, even though the DNA samples are still being tested by Arizona to see if there's a match with the mother. A blood sample was taken from Lillian Meegan and test results are expected any time, officials said.

"It sounds like it's her," Hadley said. "What are the chances of two babies being killed around the same time? I've been with the county for over eight years now. It's an unusual thing for us to find an infant child in the desert."

In Clark County, two infant bodies have been found within the past five years, a coroner's office spokeswoman said. Both autopsies were reviewed after the Meegans' arrests, but there was no resemblance to Francine, the spokeswoman said. Both babies were newborns and much younger than the Meegan baby.

Lillian Meegan, charged with child neglect, was released from jail on her own recognizance and is expected to testify against her husband. Her attorney, Paul Wommer, said prosecutors offered a plea bargain a few weeks ago that would require the couple to admit responsibility and reveal the baby's whereabouts.

James Meegan is set to appear for a preliminary hearing Thursday.

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