A Minnesota woman pleaded guilty Wednesday to leaving her newborn baby boy to die on the banks of the Mississippi River back in 2003.
Jennifer Lynn Matter, 50, filed a petition to plead guilty in Goodhue County Court for second-degree murder with intent but not premeditated after giving birth to a baby boy alone and leaving him along the water, FOX 9 reports.
“I told no one about my pregnancy and concealed it. After giving birth to [the baby], I told no one of the child’s existence or that he was located on an isolated beach,” Matter said in the plea agreement.
The criminal complaint says on Dec. 7, 2003, police were called after a group of teenagers found the baby while driving through the parking lot of Methodist Beach in Goodhue County.
This booking photo provided by the Goodhue County, Minn., Sheriff’s Office shows Jennifer Matter. Matter admitted in a guilty plea Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2023, that she left her newborn baby boy to die on the banks of the Mississippi River in 2003. She pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the baby’s death. She will be sentenced April 28. Matter was arrested May 10, 2022, at her home in Belvidere Township outside Red Wing. (Goodhue County Sheriff’s Office via AP, File)
(Goodhue County Sheriff’s Office via AP, File)
The baby boy was lying on the shoreline of the Mississippi River with his umbilical cord attached and wrapped around the middle of his body. The coroner determined the baby died of homicide, but his cause of death was undetermined, charges said.
“I left [the baby] on the beach, walked away, got into my car, and drove away with no intention of returning,” Matter said in the plea agreement.
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A Minnesota woman admitted in a guilty plea Wednesday that she left her newborn baby boy to die on the banks of the Mississippi River in 2003.
(Fox News)
Matter was arrested on May 10, 2022, at her home in Belvidere Township outside Red Wing and charged with two counts of second-degree murder for the death of her child. She will be sentenced on April 28 and faces 27 years behind bars.
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Court documents note a newborn girl was found dead on Nov. 4, 1999, in the Lower Boat Harbor of the Mississippi River near Red Wing. Investigators determined through DNA that she too was also Matter’s child, but no charges have been filed in connection to that incident at this time, according to FOX 9.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
