Mother arrested for abandoning her infant in a cardboard box to die in 1990

By Deputy Chief EditorApril 5, 2019

174 1 minute read

A woman has been arrested for abandoning her infant daughter in a cardboard vacuum cleaner box in 1990.

Brook Graham, 54, was charged on Wednesday with homicide by child abuse nearly three decades after the days-old baby, dubbed Julie Valentine by authorities, was found in a field in Greenville, South Carolina.

Police zeroed in on Graham after using DNA and genealogy technology to locate the girls father, who ultimately leading them to the victims mother.

This photo provided by Greenville Police shows Brook Graham. Authorities say DNA submitted to family genealogy sites led them to find and arrest of Graham, the mother of a baby who was born alive then died abandoned inside a box in a vacant field 29 years ago. Greenville Police Chief Ken Miller says the DNA led them to the probable father of the 6.5-pound (3-kilogram) baby called Julie Valentine. Miller said at a news conference Thursday, April 4, 2019, the father named Graham the baby???s likely mother. She was arrested late Wednesday and charged with homicide by neglect. (Greenville Police via AP) — Brook Graham, 54, has been charge with homicide by child abuse for the death of Julie Valentine in 1990 (Picture: Greenville Police Department)

The infants body was found in a cardboard vacuum cleaner box in a field filled with debris (Picture: Greenville Police Department)

Authorities believe Julie was born on February 10, 1990 – three days before she was found by a man picking up Valentines Day flowers for his wife in an overgrown, debris-filled field, according to the Greenfield News.

Greenville Police Chief Ken Miller called the crime an unfortunate and terrible murder of a defenseless infant. An autopsy confirmed that the baby had breathed air, meaning she was delivered and was alive outside the womb before she died.

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Police said Julies body was found wrapped in a floral sheet and a newspaper inside a box for a Kenmore vacuum cleaner.

Records from a Sears department store determined that Graham and her then-boyfriend had purchased the same model of vacuum cleaner that the box previously held.

It was also discovered that Grahams home was less than a mile away from where the infants body was found.