Mother accused of leaving newborn lying naked in the snowy woods to die in 1985

FALL RIVER, Mass. (WCVB) - A Massachusetts woman is accused of leaving her newborn son lying naked in the snowy woods to die more than four decades ago.

Dianne Curry Peck, 59, was indicted Monday on a murder charge by a grand jury in connection with the 1985 death of her newborn son.

“Few cases are more heartbreaking than one involving a newborn baby, allegedly abandoned and left to die in the woods by his mother, deprived of the care, love and protection every child deserves,” said FBI Boston Special Agent-In-Charge Ted Docks.

Prosecutors say in January 1985, a father and son out hunting in the woods in Mansfield saw footprints in the snow. The father followed them.

“He saw what he believed was a doll laying in the snow,” a prosecutor said in court.

He quickly realized that it was instead the body of a newborn boy lying naked in the snow. An autopsy determined the boy was alive when he was born and survived for a few hours.

Months of police work and media coverage followed, all aimed at locating the baby’s mother and finding out what happened, but the case went cold until 2022 when it was reexamined with the help of the FBI and state police crime lab.

Authorities turned to forensic genetic genealogy, using the baby’s own DNA to create a family tree.

Prosecutors say Peck was identified as the baby’s biological mother in 2024 using DNA from a soda bottle in her trash.

Peck allegedly admitted she was a high school senior in 1985 when she gave birth in her ex-boyfriend’s car. While she claims she gave the baby to her ex-boyfriend to put up for adoption, investigators say there is no evidence that is true.

Prosecutors say Peck hid her pregnancy from everyone – family, friends and her ex-boyfriend, who died in 2020.

Peck was arraigned Tuesday in Fall River Superior Court. She pleaded not guilty, posted $10,000 bail and surrendered her passport.