Police Arrest Mother Of 'Baby Jane Doe' Decades After Dog Finds Infant's Body

Frenchville, Maine -- Maine police have arrested a woman in Massachusetts for the death of "Baby Jane Doe," who froze to death nearly four decades ago.

The infant was abandoned in a gravel pit and later discovered by a dog, who carried the newborn's body all the way home to her owner.

Lee Ann Daigle, now 58, gave birth to a baby girl in sub-zero temperatures at the gravel pit in Frenchville, Maine, on December 7, 1985, NBC News reported. She abandoned the full-term baby in the pit afterward, Maine State Police noted in a news release posted on Facebook Tuesday.

A Siberian Husky named Paca later found the baby girl and carried her body for about 700 feet, all the way to the house of her owners, Armand and Lorraine Pelletier.

"She kept pounding at the door's window to get back in," Armand recalled in 2014, as per the Bangor Daily News. "She kept pounding, and after awhile, I went to go look, and I could not believe what I saw. I saw what looked like a little rag doll, but then we saw it was a frozen little baby."

Lorraine described the newborn as "a cute little girl with reddish-blond hair." They were later told she weighed 6 pounds, 8 ounces.

The couple believed Paca may have found the child after hearing her cries or catching her scent.

"Paca carried her so carefully by her head right to our back steps," Lorraine added.

Investigators were able to track the dog's path back to the location where the child was abandoned.

They also informed the Pelletiers that the baby's wounds, which were caused by Paca while carrying her, did not contribute to the infant's death.

"There were some wounds in her head, but they were completely superficial," Aroostook County Sheriff James Madore told the outlet in 2014. "The dog did nothing to hurt that little baby."

After years of investigation, the case finally saw a breakthrough with the help of advancements in DNA technology and genetic genealogy.

"This case was the culmination of decades worth of investigative work from dozens of now retired and current detectives who never gave up finding answers and justice for Baby Jane Doe," Maine State Police wrote in the news release.

Investigators "have chased every lead and spent countless hours working and following new leads that helped identify Baby Jane Doe's mother," the police department noted further.

Maine State Police then traveled to Lowell, Massachusetts, and arrested Daigle from her home more than 36 years after the abandoned baby's death.

Daigle was charged with murder and is currently being held at the Aroostook County Jail in Houlton.

A court clerk told CNN that she made her first court appearance Tuesday. A judge ordered Daigle to be held without bond.