Remembering 'Baby Mary' This Christmas Eve In Mendham

MENDHAM, NJ — A tradition that began more than four decades ago after two young boys made a shocking Christmas Eve discovery, will continue in Mendham Township.

On Christmas Eve 1984, while playing in the woods along Mount Pleasant Road, the children found a bag beneath a waterfall that contained the body of an unidentified deceased baby girl who was less than a day old.

With her umbilical cord still attached, authorities believe the abandoned infant died alone from exposure to the elements and hypothermia.

Since then, her short life and her tragic death have weighed heavy on the minds and hearts of the Mendham Township Police Department and the community.

Since 1987, officers from the Mendham Township Police Department and members of the public have gathered at Mary's grave on Christmas Eve to honor her and her life, and this year will be no exception.

"Despite the significant developments and solving of the case this year, we felt it was important to still do this service this year," Chief Ross Johnson told Patch.

The idea was first born after Mendham Township's Chaplain, Father Michael Drury, came to the police and coordinated the adoption of Baby Mary and set up what is now her grave and headstone.

"We always try to have a presence of officers there every year, no matter the weather, to ensure she is never forgotten," Johnson said.

For the past four decades, police officers had been working relentlessly in the hopes of solving the town's longest-standing mystery. On Sept. 7, answers were finally revealed as the identity of Baby Mary's parents' was announced, along with an official charge in the homicide case.

The mother, who was 17 at the time, was charged in April with one count of manslaughter, authorities said.

Since she was a minor in 1984, her identity has not been released, but authorities noted she has been living in South Carolina and is "being monitored."

The baby’s father died in 2009, and police believe he was not made aware of Baby Mary's existence and death.

Due to the nature of the case, the police claimed that public information about the woman was extremely restricted. However, according to Carroll, both parents lived in Morris County at the time of Baby Mary's birth, and the mother was enrolled in a local school in 1984.

Following the discovery of her body, Drury named the baby girl “Mary,” and she was buried properly at St. Joseph Church cemetery off Route 24, in Mendham Borough, where she remains to this day.

Mary is currently resting near another unknown baby, "Hope," a cold case of an abandoned infant found dead near Route 78 on Dec. 18, 1991, who was discovered seven years after Mary was found, police said.

All members of the public who wish to pay their respects and honor the meaningful but brief life of baby Mary are invited to the memorial service this Christmas Eve, police said.