Teen mom who left newborn daughter to die in NJ park seeks forgiveness after being caught 40 years later to end tragic ‘Baby Mary’ cold case
A teen mother who left her newborn daughter to die in a plastic bag in a New Jersey park on Christmas Eve 1984 seeks forgiveness after her past caught up with her 40 years later.
Mary Catherine Snyder was 17 when she abandoned the unnamed newborn near a stream in a wooded area of upscale Mendham Township. She wrapped the baby in a towel and put her inside a plastic bag, the umbilical cord still attached.
The medical examiner determined the infant was born alive and the death was ruled a homicide.
The baby girl was baptized by a local priest, Rev. Michael Drury of St. Joseph Church, who was also the township’s police chaplain.
He named her “Mary” and saw that she was buried in the church’s cemetery. Cops touched by the tragedy collected money for a proper gravestone.
They never forgot Baby Mary. Detectives pursued the case for four decades and “Father Mike,” 80, holds a graveside service for the infant every Christmas Eve.
When investigators finally caught up to Snyder in 2023 — after modern DNA-testing methods led them to the identity of the baby’s now-dead father — she was living the life of a married baseball mom with two sons in a well-appointed home in a South Carolina suburb. Her married name was Crumlich.
Now 57, she was sentenced to a year in jail last week after pleading guilty to manslaughter, the Morris County Prosecutor’s Office said. She was publicly identified by authorities for the first time last week.
“She was a young girl [at the time]. Very fearful, very afraid,” Drury said, revealing details of a recent heartfelt conversation he had with Crumlich to The Post.
“I know I did wrong. I know it’s wrong and I asked God to forgive me,” she told the priest, he recalled.
“Well he has, and he has Baby Mary with him and so Baby Mary’s OK,'” Drury replied.
Crumlich hopes to attend the annual service for her long-lost daughter next Christmas Eve, he said.
“She’s a good mom and a good wife from what I understand. The mistake that was made will stay with her forever. . . . And I think she’s dealing with it,” the chaplain said.
For decades, investigators “vigorously pursued every lead” to identify the baby and her parents, and why she was left to die in the woods, prosecutors said.
“This disposition has been years in the making, across generations of law enforcement who have demonstrated a relentless commitment to justice for Baby Mary,” said Morris County Prosecutor Robert Carroll. He said the case was solved through “new forensic DNA technology, combined with traditional, boots-on-the-ground police work.”
In April 2023, Morris County prosecutors filed a juvenile delinquency complaint and Crumlich was arrested in South Carolina. On Feb. 28, she pled guilty to manslaughter.
The father of Baby Mary, who was 19 at the time, has never been publicly identified. He did not know about the baby, authorities said, and died in 2009.
Police noted that New Jersey’s Safe Haven Infant Protection Act — which allows families to give up an infant safely, legally, and anonymously — was not passed until 2000, and could have helped save Baby Mary.
“I want young parents to know that there is help available,” Morris County Sheriff James Gannon said at the September press conference announcing an arrest.
