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A Virginia mother was arrested 30 years after she allegedly drowned her newborn baby and left him in the toilet of a Long Island movie theater, authorities said.
Michelle Chronick Tyson was indicted on two counts of second-degree murder after DNA testing linked the 59-year-old to the 1996 killing, the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office announced on Thursday.
“As alleged, this defendant made a choice back in 1996 to take her newborn child’s life before he ever had the chance to experience the world beyond his first few breaths,” DA Raymond A. Tierney said in a statement.
“The alleged circumstances of this infant’s death are deeply disturbing, and the fact that nearly three decades have passed does not diminish the gravity of this crime.”
The baby was discovered inside a toilet in a woman’s bathroom in the now-shuttered Commack Multiplex shortly after 12:30 a.m. on Nov. 18, 1996 — and died of “asphyxia with submersion in water.”
His death was ruled a homicide by the Suffolk County Medical Examiner’s Office.
Following the horrific discovery, a sample of the newborn’s blood was kept as evidence — but leads ran dry until the Cold Case Task Force submitted the sample to a private lab, which generated a “Single Nucleotide Polymorphism DNA profile.”
The task force — a specialized unit consisting of members of Suffolk police and the county district attorney’s office — was able to determine Tyson was likely the baby’s mother.
On Aug. 26, investigators used a search warrant to take a buccal swab from Tyson and confirmed she was the biological mother of the slain baby, prosecutors said.
That led to Tyson’s arrest Wednesday in Hampton, Virginia — and extradition back to Long Island to face charges.
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She was arraigned Thursday on the second-degree murder indictment and ordered her held without bail.
Tyson faces 25 years to life behind bars if convicted on the top count.
Tierney said “every child deserves the chance to live, to grow and to thrive.”
“This infant was robbed of that chance,” he added, “and we are committed to pursuing justice for a life that was tragically and selfishly cut short.”
