Lily Janelle, born 40 years ago in a Frenchville gravel pit and abandoned, now has a marked grave, thanks to the Maine State Police.
After being left to die by her mother in 1985 in sub-zero temperatures, Baby Jane Doe’s body was found several hours later by a dog that gently brought her home to a couple who’d always dreamed of having kids of their own.
Police found a large pool of blood, a placenta, tire tracks and footprints in a gravel pit about 1,000 feet from the house.
For 37 years, detectives worked every possible lead to try and identify the girl and her mother, who abandoned her.
Finally, in 2022, they were successful in identifying her through genetic genealogy, and the mother was arrested and convicted.
“The detectives on the case called her ‘Lily,’ which means innocence,” state police said. “The young couple whose dog found her body said that if they had been given the chance to adopt her, they would have called her ‘Janelle,’ which means gift from God.
And so, Baby Jane Doe became Lily Janelle, a gift from God.
Next, the detectives worked with the Mount Pleasant Catholic Cemetery in Bangor to find her unmarked grave.
Once they found it, they worked with the Maine State Troopers Foundation, Mays Funeral Home in Calais, and Smet Monuments of New Brunswick to fund, design, and carve a new gravestone to honor Lily Janelle.
On August 5, original responding troopers and detectives, along with current police personnel, prosecutors who tried the case in court, cemetery workers, and others involved in Lily Janelle’s short life and subsequent investigation gathered in Bangor to set her new gravestone and witness a committal service.
In 2023, Lee Ann Daigle, 59, of Lowell, Massachusetts pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to six years in prison.
Daigle, who claimed she thought her baby was stillborn, said she wouldn’t have left her if she thought she were alive.
