Mass. woman pleads guilty in 1985 death of newborn in Aroostook County

HOULTON, Maine (WAGM) - A woman has pleaded guilty to manslaughter for abandoning her newborn child in a Frenchville gravel pit in December of 1985.

Lee Ann Daigle was arrested at her home in Lowell, Massachusetts, in June 2022.

Daigle is the mother of “Baby Jane Doe,” who was found dead in Frenchville.

At the hearing, Lara Nomani, a prosecutor for the Maine Attorney Generals Office, laid out the evidence they would have presented if the case went to trial before a jury and recapped the events of that December night in 1985.

“During the morning hours of December 7, 1985 Armand Pelletier discovered the naked bloody body of a baby girl on the lawn of his home...Maine State Police responded and collected the Body of Baby Jane who waws found unclothed, unswaddled, and partially frozen,” said Nomani.

Although she pleaded guilty to manslaughter, according to Justice Stephen Nelson, a sentencing agreement was not part of the deal. A date for sentencing has not been set, but according to Nelson, Daigle would face a maximum penalty of up to 20 years in prison.

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