The "first big break" in Boston's Baby Doe case came earlier this month when tests discovered local pollen on the dead girl's clothing and blanket. Now another clue has emerged, thanks to the chemical detective work of a Utah lab: After analysis that compared oxygen isotopes in the girl's hair and teeth to the levels found in drinking water, it appears the girl had moved around the country and may have lived in any of a bunch of New England states and other US regions, Fox 25 News reports. "[This] could explain why there is such a lapse in someone coming forward," a forensic expert says. "She's lived a transient lifestyle." A Massachusetts State Police spokesman tells ABC News that the discovery is "another piece in a large puzzle that we're still assembling" and that more tests could help them determine if the young girl spent time in other countries.
The president of IsoForensics, the Utah lab that's been analyzing the evidence, tells Fox 13 "we've pretty much brought all hands on deck for this one." "It is not ZIP code-specific, but we can tell what regions she was in," she tells Fox News. "Food and water from different regions have different isotopes, and the hair and teeth keep a permanent record of that. You can tell the difference between Texas and Utah, for instance." A senior research scientist at the company adds to Fox 13: "The hair of the little girl will give us a tape recorder of her last year of life and where she moved." In the end, though, authorities say human intervention is needed. "Science can help us find out where she was, but it will take a person to tell us who she was," a DA rep says. "At the heart of this investigation is determining the identity of an innocent child and giving her the dignity of a burial under her true name." (More Massachusetts stories.)
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