PORT ORCHARD – Under a small white tent at Sunset Lane Memorial Cemetery, about 35 people gathered to help lay to rest an unknown child who was alive for just a day.
Thursday’s burial was for “Baby Jane Doe,” whose frail body was found in a garbage bag off a south Kitsap County road on April 5, 2006. Authorities still don’t know who she was, where she came from, or why her mother or those associated with her chose that fate for a newborn.
“Everyone should have a chance,” said county Deputy Coroner John D’Agostino, who helped investigate the case. “And she didn’t.”
Coroner Greg Sandstrom, who gave the baby a name, “Dawn,” said there were many unknowns in the case, but one thing was certain.
“Unfortunately, a mother didn’t want her,” Sandstrom said. “But from the group here today, you can see she was wanted.”
Melvin Byrd, chaplain with South Kitsap Fire and Rescue, led the ceremony. The girl’s life, he said, was like a “mist in the early morning” that disappears during the day.
“Dawn’s life is a measure not in terms of years, and not in terms of days,” Byrd said. “But, rather, in brief moments.”
Dawn’s grave will have a headstone that says, “a beloved baby girl.” The plot was donated by Rill Chapel.
Five South Kitsap women – Diane DeMulling, Vicki Chang, Nancy Williams, Sharon Floyd and Joyce Kohler – created a quilt to go inside of Dawn’s tiny white casket.
“If the mother had just come forward, this all would have been prevented,” Williams said at the service.
Retired Port Orchard Pastor George Larson told the gathering, “You are all adoptive parents of this child.”
“Port Orchard,” he said, “has the tomb of the unknown child.”
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