In the late spring of 2015, a heart-wrenching story began to unfold in an Indianapolis, Indiana, subdivision. Three-month-old Janna Rivera, a biracial infant with brown hair and blue eyes, was living with her parents and two older sisters in a home on Candy Apple Boulevard, a place they had moved to only a few weeks prior. The last time she was seen was on May 28, 2015, in the care of her father, Jeffrey D. Fairbanks, while her mother, Yolanda Rivera-Gonzalez, was at work.
The following morning, just before 9:00 a.m., a confusing and frantic 911 call was made by Janna's mother, first stating her daughter was dead, and then recanting to say her boyfriend had taken the baby the night before. This call marked the beginning of a desperate search and a complex investigation into the disappearance of the infant girl.
The investigation immediately focused on Janna's father, Jeffrey Fairbanks, who was at home when police arrived. He provided multiple, conflicting accounts of what had transpired. His stories ranged from claiming Janna died of natural causes in her sleep to admitting he had placed a pillow over her face to muffle her cries, though he denied applying pressure. Janna's older sisters provided chilling details to investigators, recounting that they heard the baby crying around noon on the day she disappeared. They saw their father take Janna, whose eyes were closed, out to his car and leave for eight hours. Upon his return, he was intoxicated and crying, telling them Janna was dead and he couldn't save her. The sisters also disclosed a history of abuse, stating that Fairbanks, an alcoholic, would yell at and hit the baby when she cried. A few days after the disappearance, Janna's mother sought an order of protection against Fairbanks, detailing a two-year history of physical abuse.
Based on statements from Fairbanks, an extensive and heartbreaking search for Janna's body commenced. He eventually told investigators that he had panicked after finding Janna deceased, wrapped her in a blanket, and after driving around for hours, placed her body in a dumpster at an apartment complex. This led police to conduct exhaustive searches of a dumpster, a trash transfer station, and multiple landfills in Marion, Shelby, and Hancock Counties, but their efforts yielded nothing of evidentiary value. Police also deployed bloodhounds and divers to search a wooded area and a pond near the family's home, again with no success. The only piece of potential evidence recovered was a bloodstained blanket that Janna's mother identified as belonging to her daughter. Despite the lack of a body, the circumstances surrounding her disappearance led investigators to believe foul play was involved and that Janna was no longer alive. In August 2015, Jeffrey Fairbanks was arrested and charged with murder and neglect of a dependent causing death. In April 2017, after a trial, a jury found him not guilty of murder but convicted him of neglect of a dependent causing death. He was subsequently sentenced to thirty years in prison. The case of Janna Rivera is a tragic one, an overview of which shows a vulnerable infant who vanished from her home under the care of her father. Despite a conviction and sentencing, the central mystery remains, as Janna's body has never been located, leaving her family and the community without the closure of laying her to rest.Last Seen: May 29, 2015
