An Indiana woman was charged with the murder of a girl found 13 years ago in a dumpster in Pennsylvania, authorities said this week.
Tara Brazzle, allegedly the child’s mother, was arrested last week and charged on Wednesday with the murder of a baby killed in September 2007 by a member of a local Catholic Church later called Mary Anne who was holding her funeral.
Brazzle, 44, from Valparaiso, Indiana, was called Tara Indrakosit at the time and was working at the YMCA, where the baby’s body was found by a worker doing his regular garbage disposal.
According to a statement by Lancaster County District Attorney’s Office, the 2007 coroner ruled the baby’s death as a homicide due to asphyxiation complications, a condition in which the body is deprived of oxygen.
“The death and the circumstances of the discovery of Baby Mary Anne had a tremendous impact on this community,” District Attorney Heather Adams said in the statement. “The case was incredibly sad then and incredibly sad today as those with ties to Baby Mary Anne begin to come to terms with and mourn a personal loss they are only now learning about.”
The child’s body, wrapped in a blood-stained towel and several plastic bags, was found by David Ressler, the YMCA’s facility manager at the time, in a duffel bag that had been disposed of in the dumpster at the back of the property Lancaster Online.
“It never faded from my mind. It was a little traumatic to find a baby in the dumpster, “Ressler told the local news agency.
Two months later, the Lancaster Congregation held a funeral for the baby in the Catholic Church of St. Anthony of Padua. The baby was named Mary Anne by Dolores Yecker, a lifelong member of the Church, according to Chad Snyder, undertaker for Charles F. Snyder Funeral Homes.
“She hugged the baby that was discovered and worked with my father to organize the funeral,” Snyder told USA TODAY.
He added, “There were over 200 parishioners who attended her funeral and funeral. Even today people visit their graves and leave flowers. Baby Mary Anne struck a chord with so many and left our congregation to mourn this baby, the community also had to design her tombstone.
In a July 1 interview at her home, Brazzle admitted being the baby’s mother and throwing her body in the trash behind the YMCA, authorities said. She was arrested by California police the next day after catching a flight to San Jose International Airport.
She is being held in the Santa Clara Sheriff’s Department pending extradition to Pennsylvania, authorities said.
Contribution: The Associated Press
