DNA technology helps Picayune Police solve 30-year-old cold case

Picayune Police have solved a 30-year-old cold case.

Police said Thursday that 50-year-old Inga Johansen Carrier and 50-year-old Andrew K Carrier II, both of Avondale, Louisiana, have been charged with first degree murder. They are being held at the Jefferson Parish Correctional Facility awaiting extradition to Mississippi. Picayune Police have warrants to charge them with desecration of a human body when they are returned to the state.

The case began April 15, 1992, when a newborn female was found in a trash bag in a dumpster behind what was a Mr. Gatti’s Pizza on Memorial Boulevard.

A farmer removed the trash bags to feed his animals from the dumpster. Once home, possibly the next day, he discovered the baby when he went to feed his animals. The baby had been wrapped in a towel and put in a trash bag with other refuse.

Detectives photographed and collected other items in the bag that were placed in evidence.

An autopsy showed the baby probably had been born April 15 and was about three weeks premature. She was alive a few minutes before being smothered.

From there, the case went cold.

Picayune Police reopened the cold case in 2021. Following tips from former officers, police learned the baby had been buried at Lee’s Chapel Baptist Church. The church donated the plot and its members collected money for a headstone that reads “Heavens Angel” and April 15, 1992 as her birth and death dates.

MBI offered to help with the case, using a grant to cover forensic genetic genealogy testing. Suspects were developed because of advances in DNA technology.

Louisiana State Police also helped with the investigation because the suspects lived in that state. DNA samples were obtained by LSP, Picayune Police and MBI. Detectives determined the crime took place in Louisiana. Warrants were then issued in March for the Carriers.

Picayune Police said in a statement released about the case, “Without documentation and evidence collected and preserved as well as it was in 1992 this case would not have been solvable.

“We would like to thank MBI and LSP for all of their hard work and for helping us bring closure to this case.”