Michigan Woman Charged With Murder 17 Years After Death of Newborn Twins [VIDEO]
Nearly two decades after the deaths of her newborn sons, Antoinette Briley has been charged with the murder of the boys. The Holland woman was arrested Friday in Stickney Township, just outside of Chicago.
New developments in DNA technology led to the woman's arrest.
Authorities believe Briley's twin boys were alive when she put them in a garbage can in June of 2003. A Waste Management employee made the grim discovery when she saw the deceased bodies in the garbage truck.
An investigation was conducted at the time, but authorities were unable to determine who the boys' mother was. In 2018, the case was reopened, as DNA from the scene was reexamined. A breakthrough in technology allowed examiners to eventually determine that Briley was the victims' mother.
Detectives then traveled to Holland, Michigan in order to examine a discarded personal item that contained Briley's DNA, according to the Cook County Sheriff's Chief of Public Safety, Leo Schmitz.
"The sheriff's detectives and sheriff's police officers worked hard on this case then, it was never gone, it never was passed us," Schmitz tells ABC 7. "The things that they did back then, helped us today."
Investigators say they remember interviewing Briley and others who lived in the area at the time of the crime.
"We did multiple interviews up and down the block, checking, doing canvases but we didn't get anything back then. That's why this case now jumping that way is so good," Schmitz added. "The murder happened 17 years ago, we don't ever give up."