Antoinette Briley Holland Michigan woman arrested in 2003 newborn twin killings cold case which involved newly borns twin babies found in garbage bin.
A Michigan woman has been arrested in the cold case deaths of her newborn twins 17 years ago.
Antoinette Elizabeth Briley, 41, of Holland, is facing murder charges in connection with the deaths, Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart said Saturday according to the Chicago Tribune.
A garbage collector in Stuckey Township, southwest of Chicago, was on the job when she found the twins’ bodies in June 2003.
They tumbled out of an alley garbage bin.
An autopsy determined the infants were born alive and died as a result of being asphyxiated, Dart’s office said. Their deaths were ruled homicides.
New developments in DNA testing allowed breakthrough
The identity of the birth mother remained a mystery until this year.
Dart’s office said DNA and genetic genealogy cracked the case, identifying Briley as the woman who gave birth to the newborns.
‘As part of the investigation, Sheriff’s Police detectives travelled to Holland and obtained a discarded item containing Briley’s DNA, which was matched to the DNA from the victims,’ Dart’s office said.
Come Friday night, Briley was with two counts of first-degree murder for the deaths of her sons, Dart’s office announced.
Antoinette Briley, 41, of Michigan was charged Friday night with the 2003 murder of her newborn twin sons in unincorporated Stickney Township. https://t.co/cZXxmmD3vL
— ABC 7 Chicago (@ABC7Chicago) December 5, 2020
Had she been aware that she was pregnant prior to births?
Briley was arrested during a traffic stop Thursday in Oak Lawn, Illinois.
‘There was evidence of live birth,’ Cook County Assistant State’s Attorney Dominique Marshall told a Saturday afternoon court hearing from the Leighton Criminal Court Building.
According to Marshall, Briley began to bleed and feel pain and cramping while alone at her grandparents’ home, so she got into the shower to ‘ease the pain.’
Moments later, while in the waterless bathtub, she began giving birth to the babies, Marshall said.
They started whimpering.
‘They were both crying when they were born, she said, but not crying so loud that neighbors could hear,’ Marshall said, quoting Briley.
‘Panicking,’ Briley grabbed a duffle bag and, without wiping the babies off, she placed them in the bag, got in her car and decided to drive them to a hospital, but her mind raced, she had a change of heart.
Briley told herself: ‘If nobody knew … no one would ever know’ about their births, Marshall said.
She pulled into an alley, took the babies out of the bag, placed them into a garbage bin, drove back to her grandparents’ home and threw away the duffle bag.
After trashing the duffle bag, she took a shower, got into bed and watched television.
‘She wishes she could take the whole day back,’ Marshall said, quoting Briley, adding Briley wished she had ‘kept going to the hospital.’
It remained unclear if the then pregnant woman realized she was expecting.
Briley’s public defender, Courtney Smallwood, said Briley lives with her 12-year-old daughter and has a full-time job, working 60 to 70 hours a week as an assembly worker. She had no criminal background, and there were no witnesses to the alleged incident, Smallwood added.
Briley has been ‘an active member of society,’ Smallwood said as per the Chicago Tribune. ‘She’s not a danger to society or flight risk.’
Briley remains held on $15,000 bond.
