The 23-year-old mystery of a baby found dumped in Horsetooth Reservoir in Larimer County resurfaced this year with new DNA testing, and it took investigators across state lines before ending in an arrest Tuesday.
Over the years, the newborn had been known as “Baby Faith” and she was buried in a local cemetery with the help of the community. Her parents’ identities remained unknown.
On Tuesday, the Larimer County Sheriff’s Office arrested Erie resident Jennifer Katalinich, also known as Jennifer Tjornehoj, 42, on charges of first- and second-degree murder in connection with the homicide of the newborn girl on Aug. 21, 1996.
Officials from the Larimer County Sheriff’s Office declined to confirm whether Katalinich is the mother of the baby, citing a preservation of evidence. Katalinich would have been 18 at the time of Baby Faith’s death.
The unidentified baby, referred to as Baby Faith, was found wrapped in a plastic garbage bag on the shores of the reservoir on Aug. 24, 1996, by two 11-year-old boys. Investigators at the time determined she likely was born alive days earlier. The coroner’s office ruled her death a homicide by asphyxia/suffocation, the sheriff’s office said.
“Until recently, we feared that we would never know (Baby Faith) by any other name or why she was left alone in the cold waters of Horsetooth Reservoir in August of 1996,” Andy Josey, a sergeant in the sheriff’s office’s investigations unit at the time of Baby Faith’s death, said at a news conference Tuesday.
It’s hard to forget a newborn in such a case, Josey, who is retired, said.
“I still see her,” he said. “I still remember the things that we talked about at the time, the things we did at the time. It’s always there and it will always be there.”
After the baby’s body was discovered, the sheriff’s office and community members held a memorial service on Sept. 3, 1996, at the First Assembly of God Church, now known as Timberline Church, in Fort Collins. A funeral home and cemetery donated a headstone and burial site at Roselawn Cemetery for Baby Faith, Josey said. Her headstone reads, “Baby Faith God loves you.”
Still, no one claimed her.
Baby Faith was “left by choice, not by chance,” Josey said.
“I knew then as I know today she didn’t deserve to be left alone,” he said.
Since the baby’s death, Colorado has passed a Safe Haven law that allows new mothers to drop off their babies unharmed to hospitals and fire stations for up to 72 hours after birth and relinquish them, no questions asked.
Even though the law wasn’t passed until 2000, Coleman said the child’s mother still had other options in 1996.
“You’re not alone. There’s help out there,” Mitch Murray, Eighth Judicial District first assistant district attorney, said. “It may take a lot of bravery to reach out, but that’s what people need to do and I hope they would.”
On the same day Baby Faith was found dumped in the reservoir — her umbilical cord still attached, according to media reports at the time — another newborn baby girl was found in the Arkansas River, dumped in the Pueblo Reservoir.
But officials determined through testing that the two babies, Baby Faith and Baby Hope, were not tied to each other or a single parent.
The Baby Faith case was suspended in June 1998 after investigators had exhausted their leads.
On Aug. 24, 2006, the sheriff’s office reopened the case on the 10th anniversary of Baby Faith’s death, hoping technological advances would provide new information. However, they still couldn’t connect the baby to anyone.
Another 10 years went by, and after speaking to Pueblo investigators about the two babies’ cold cases, investigators resubmitted DNA evidence to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation for testing in November 2016, sheriff’s Capt. Bob Coleman said at the news conference.
CBI investigators told sheriff’s office investigators on July 17 that they had five potential matches for people related to Baby Faith, Coleman said. Four were identified as more probable matches who might have information, all living out of state.
Three of the people live in Minnesota, so sheriff’s investigators went to interviewed them on Oct. 6. All three were determined to have no connection, Coleman said.
The fourth person was in Maryland, and investigators interviewed that person. Based on information from that interview, they learned that Katalinich might know something about Baby Faith. So, they met with her on Oct. 18, Coleman said. She willingly spoke to detectives.
On Friday, the sheriff’s office issued a warrant for Katalinich’s arrest. She turned herself in to the Larimer County jail on Nov. 5.
“As we recognize, today’s step brings new grief,” Sheriff Justin Smith said on Tuesday. “There is grief for the family that never knew of Baby Faith’s existence and there surely will be grief from the family of the accused.”
Katalinich appeared for the first time in Larimer County District Court at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday and is scheduled for a disposition hearing on Jan. 21, according to court records. Her bond was set at $25,000. She posted the cash bond and was released.
She has no prior criminal history in Colorado, according to court records.
“At the end of the day, regardless of the outcome, when this case is finally adjudicated, Baby Faith will have two things she didn’t have on Aug. 24, 1996 — that’s a voice and a true identity,” Coleman said at the news conference.
Anyone with additional information about the case is asked to call sheriff’s office investigator Rita Servin at 970-498-5167.