'Delta Dawn' baby identified as Webb City girl after 38 years

Nearly four decades after the body of an infant known as “Delta Dawn” or "Baby Jane" was found in Jackson County, Mississippi, authorities have now identified her as a baby girl from Webb City.

Jackson County Sheriff Mike Ezell says 18-month-old Alisha Ann Heinrich was identified as the victim with the help of DNA genealogy tests.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children says Heinrich's remains were found in thick brush along the Escatawpa River, under I-10 in Jackson County, Mississippi, on December 5th, 1982.

She was last seen with her mother, Gwendolyn Clemons, who was 23 at the time, in Joplin on Thanksgiving of that year. Clemons is still missing.

The family says say the two, along with an unidentified man, who is now deceased, left the state together to reportedly move to Florida to "start a new life".

The investigation continues.