Baby Jane from Opelika is ID'd after 10 years.

“Amore Wiggins. It feels really good to say her name out loud.”

A press conference held by Opelika Police Department announced the identification of a Baby Jane Doe, an approximately 3 year old child found in Opelika, Alabama, 11 years ago. Her identification is a result of over a decade of hard work from numerous agencies who were all dedicated to finding her name:

Opelika Police Chief Shane Healey goes on to say, “I want to commend NCMEC, Barbara Rae-Venter, the FBI, Othram, Astrea and my entire team for all their hard work.  Without it, we may have never known her name...”


Astrea Forensics aided the investigation by generating a comprehensive genotype file from the child’s (rootless) hair. This file, along with a file developed by Othram from scalp, was used by genetic genealogist Barbara Rae Venter to identify a lead.

Astrea’s work on the case was offered pro bono through a NIJ research and development grant. We found that Amore’s rootless hair was extremely well preserved, resulting in over 6-fold coverage of the genome despite highly fragmented DNA. From the hair, Astrea lab was able to deliver a SNP profile to NCMEC in 6 weeks from sample arrival.

Shortly after Opelika Police Department announced the identification, Amore’s father confessed to the murder.

Read more here: https://www.missingkids.org/blog/2023/who-is-opelika-jane-doe