Officials: Parents of baby found dead in Mississippi in 1992, arrested 30 years later in Louisiana

JEFFERSON PARISH, La. — DNA testing led cold case investigators to the parents of a baby that was found in a trash bag in a dumpster in April 1992, officials say. The child’s parents were later identified as the suspects.

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In a news release, the Picayune Police Department said that on April 15, 1992, a baby was found inside a trash bag. A farmer had taken some trash bags to feed his animals from the dumpster behind a pizza shop. When the farmer got home, he found the baby wrapped in a towel with other trash in one of the bags.

An autopsy was performed and it was determined that the infant was born three weeks premature, police say, according to WDSU. The baby had lived for about a few minutes before it was reportedly smothered to death.

It was determined that the baby girl’s cause of death was perinatal asphyxia from smothering, the Mississippi State medical examiner determined. The baby’s death was classified as a homicide, the Louisiana State Police said in a news release.

The case went cold. Around 29 years later, the Picayune Police Department reopened the case in 2021. Investigators had to track down where the baby was buried because it was not documented in the file. Eventually, they located a headstone at Lee’s Chapel Baptist Church which was donated by church members. The headstone said “Heavens Angel” with April 15, 1992, to April 15, 1992, on it. The coroner later confirmed to police that it was the correct location of the child’s burial site.

By August 2021, the Mississippi Bureau of Investigations assisted the Picayune Police Department with the case because it received a grant that covered the costs of forensic genetic genealogy testing. The Louisiana State Police assisted in the investigation because it was believed that the suspects lived in Louisiana.

DNA samples were collected in Louisiana. Using the DNA evidence, investigators were able to identify the baby’s parents, according to authorities.

The baby’s parents were identified as Andrew Carriere, 50, and Inga Johansen Carriere, 50. Both were living in Louisiana at the time of the baby’s death, WDSU reported.

The Picayune Police Department believes that the baby’s death occurred in Louisiana and the body was dumped in Mississippi, according to the news outlet.

Inga Johansen Carriere was arrested on Feb. 28, and Andrew Carriere was arrested on Thursday, according to WDSU.

Both have been charged with first-degree murder, police said. Detectives signed felony affidavits for both Inga Johansen Carriere and Andrew Carriere for the desecration of a human being. They are both expected to be extradited from Louisiana to Mississippi.