A decades-old cold case out of Wichita Falls has finally been resolved after forensic genetic genealogy technology helped investigators identify the mother of a newborn boy found dead in a laundry bin nearly 40 years ago.
Tammy Sue Kerns, now residing in Atlanta, entered a guilty plea to second-degree murder in connection with the death of the infant discovered on August 4, 1988, at Ponds Laundry in Wichita Falls. She now faces up to life in prison.
The baby’s body was found wrapped in linens traced back to the United States Air Force Regional Hospital at Sheppard Air Force Base, located roughly five miles from where the child was discovered. Investigators confirmed at the time that all known pregnant patients and newborns on the base had been accounted for, leaving the case without a clear lead.
The Air Force Office of Special Investigations reopened the case in 2015. John Fine, now chief of the agency’s Cold Case Unit, said the unsolved case had stayed with him since he was in training when the baby was found.
A major breakthrough came in 2022 when tissue samples from the infant’s autopsy were submitted for forensic investigative genetic genealogy analysis. That process ultimately led investigators to Kerns in 2025.
During her interview with investigators, Kerns admitted she had been working as an X-ray technician at the Sheppard Air Force Base hospital at the time of the incident. She confessed to being the child’s mother and revealed details she had concealed for nearly four decades.
According to Fine, Kerns admitted to placing her hand over the newborn’s mouth until he stopped breathing. She then severed the umbilical cord, wrapped it around the baby, placed him in hospital linens, carried him to a laundry van, cleaned the room and returned to work.
U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Ryan Raybould emphasized the gravity of the case, noting the infant had been hidden in plain sight using materials from a federal military facility.
The child, had he lived, would have been 38 years old today. The case marks a significant milestone in the use of genetic genealogy to solve violent cold cases across Texas and the nation.