UNIONTOWN, Pa. -- State police in Uniontown are crediting advanced DNA techniques with helping solve the mystery of a newborn's death in 2000.

Trooper 'Consumed' By Case Of Infant Found In Creek

Trooper James Pierce said Tuesday that he doesn't believe an arrest would have been made in the "Baby Mary" case had forensic experts not been able to find a link between the mother and baby.

On Friday, authorities arrested Sarah Sue Hawk, 25, of Uniontown, and charged her with homicide and concealing the death of a child.

Investigators believe Hawk is the mother of an infant whose body was discovered floating in a Fayette County creek eight years ago.

Two men found the infant's body wrapped in a flannel shirt and packed inside a plastic bag floating in Cove Run Creek in North Union Township in June 2000. An autopsy showed the baby to be about 8½ months old.

Video: Watch the reporter from WTAE Channel 4's Tara Edwards

Hawk is now 25. Back in June 2000, she was a 16-year-old girl who police say was Baby Mary's mother. At 16, investigators say Hawk delivered the infant, killed her, then kept it a secret all these years.

"This has consumed me," said Pierce, who was one of the first to respond to Cove Run Creek. For more than eight years, he looked for the little girl's killer.

"A lot of my cases have been put on the back burner trying to pursue this case," Pierce said.

Fisherman Scott Hall remembers the day Baby Mary was found.

"It's like the worst thing you could imagine," said Hall.

His cousin Allen Hall also remembers that day.

"I just lifted it up and seen it and said, 'Oh my God, it's a baby,'" Allen Hall said. "There were two plastic bags, a backpack, a couple more plastic bags. Then it was wrapped up in a shirt."

The loss of the infant no one claimed they knew forced the coroner to name her Baby Mary. The community claimed her as its own, donating money for her funeral and burial service and showing up in overwhelming numbers to say goodbye.

During that time, there were rumors that Hawk had been pregnant, but it was new DNA testing that led police to her all these years later.

Pennsylvania State Police announced the results of an analysis conducted by the New Jersey State Police Mitochondrial DNA Laboratory and a maternity style analysis conducted by the Marshall University Forensic Science Center last week.

Residents of the Woodview Terrace Apartments who knew Hawk told WTAE Channel 4 Action News that they remember seeing detectives at her apartment over the past few days. They described Hawk as a good person and a good mother.

Fayette County prosecutors said Hawk has admitted she was the mother. Hawk remains in police custody at the county jail without bond.

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