COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) – Charges have been upgraded against a South Carolina woman accused of leaving her newborn daughter to die in a cardboard box in an empty field.
The Greenville News reports that Brook Graham’s original charge of homicide by child abuse was upgraded to murder last week.
A man was picking flowers in the vacant field to prepare for Valentine’s Day in 1990 when he found the baby now known as Julie Valentine.
Julie was born alive outside of a hospital. She was found dead, wrapped in newspaper and bedding with her umbilical cord and placenta still attached. It’s unclear why she was abandoned.
Authorities said DNA submitted to genealogy sites revealed a likely match to the baby’s father, who then pointed police to Graham. She was arrested this month.
According to a police department news release, the analysis of Brook Graham’s DNA concluded that Julie Valentine’s DNA profile is consistent with being the biological child of Brook Graham Willis — also known as Brook Graham.
“It is approximately 4.5 quadrillion times more likely to see these genetic results if Brook Graham and (father’s name redacted by GPD) are the biological parents of Jane Doe than if two random unrelated individuals are the biological parents. Given the genetic evidence, greater than 99.99% of randomly tested individuals would be excluded as the possible parents of Jane Doe,” from the report.
