Diane O’Dell and the Babies in Boxes Murders
Overview
Diane O’Dell, whose first name also appears as Dianne in court records, is an American woman convicted of murdering three of her newborn children in Sullivan County, New York. The killings occurred in 1982, 1983 and 1985, although publicly available court and news records do not establish exact calendar dates for the infants’ births and deaths. Because the victims were killed shortly after being born and were never publicly identified by name, they are generally described in official accounts only as O’Dell’s newborn children.
The case became widely known as the “Babies in Boxes” case because O’Dell concealed the infants’ remains inside containers and transported them through a series of moves. For approximately two decades, the deaths remained hidden from police. The case finally came to light in May 2003, when the badly decomposed remains of three newborns were discovered among property left in an Arizona storage facility.
The Victims
- Unidentified newborn infant: Born and killed in 1982 in the Kauneonga Lake area of Sullivan County, New York. No exact date of birth or death and no publicly confirmed name were released. Prosecutors established that the child had been born alive and died from suffocation.
- Unidentified newborn infant: Born and killed in 1983 in the Kauneonga Lake area of Sullivan County, New York. The infant’s exact birth date, death date and name were not made public. Forensic evidence indicated that the baby had lived after delivery and was then fatally asphyxiated.
- Unidentified newborn infant: Born and killed in 1985 in the Kauneonga Lake area of Sullivan County, New York. Public records identify only the year of death. The child was one of the three newborns whose concealed remains were eventually recovered in Arizona.
Secret Pregnancies and Births
O’Dell gave birth to numerous children during her life. Eight of her children survived and were raised, while the three infants involved in the murder prosecution disappeared without being reported to authorities. Investigators concluded that O’Dell concealed the pregnancies because the children had been conceived outside stable relationships and she did not want members of her family, particularly her mother, to know about them.
The births apparently occurred without medical assistance. Rather than bringing the newborns to a hospital, reporting their deaths or arranging lawful burials, O’Dell wrapped and concealed their bodies. The secrecy surrounding the pregnancies meant that there were no ordinary medical records, birth certificates or funeral records that would have immediately revealed what had happened.
Cause of Death
By the time the remains were recovered, they were severely decomposed and partly mummified. Despite their condition, forensic specialists found evidence indicating that the infants had been born alive. Prosecutors presented expert testimony that the children died from traumatic asphyxia caused by suffocation.
The forensic evidence was especially important because O’Dell maintained that the babies had been stillborn or had died naturally during unattended deliveries. The prosecution argued that the physical condition of the remains was inconsistent with her explanations. Jurors ultimately accepted the prosecution’s conclusion that O’Dell had caused the deaths and had acted with depraved indifference to human life.
Years of Concealment
After the deaths, O’Dell did not leave the bodies in New York or surrender them to authorities. She preserved the remains inside bags, blankets, boxes and other containers. As she moved from one residence and state to another, she reportedly carried the concealed bodies with her belongings.
The repeated transportation of the remains made the case particularly disturbing. What appeared to outsiders to be ordinary household property contained the remains of three infants. O’Dell was able to keep the secret during moves through several states, and the boxes remained unopened for years.
At different times, the remains were kept in rented storage spaces. Eventually, O’Dell stored her possessions in a unit near Safford, Arizona. When payments on the unit stopped and the contents were removed or sold, the containers holding the infants were finally opened.
The Arizona Discovery
On May 14, 2003, Arizona authorities were notified after the remains of three newborn children were found in property connected to a storage unit rented by O’Dell. The infants had been wrapped and placed inside containers among her abandoned belongings. Their advanced decomposition immediately suggested that they had been dead for many years.
Investigators traced the property to O’Dell and began reconstructing her movements and pregnancies. Although the bodies were discovered in Arizona, evidence showed that the births and deaths had occurred approximately two decades earlier in Sullivan County, New York. The investigation was therefore transferred to New York authorities, who had jurisdiction over the alleged murders.
An Earlier Infant Death
The investigation also brought renewed attention to another infant associated with O’Dell. In March 1989, skeletal or mummified infant remains were discovered inside a suitcase in the trunk of an abandoned vehicle at a junkyard in Bethel, New York. The vehicle had previously been registered to O’Dell.
O’Dell told investigators that she had secretly delivered that child in 1972 and that the infant had been stillborn. She admitted concealing the remains and carrying the suitcase through several moves before leaving it in the vehicle. Prosecutors did not charge her with murder in that case because they could not disprove her assertion that the child had been stillborn.
The 1972 death was therefore not one of the three murders for which O’Dell was convicted. During the later prosecution, however, the earlier concealment became relevant because it showed a long-standing pattern of hiding pregnancies and transporting infant remains. The judge limited how prosecutors could use the evidence so that O’Dell would not be convicted merely because of conduct for which she had never been charged.
Arrest and Statements
O’Dell was arrested on May 17, 2003, only days after the discovery in Arizona. During interviews with investigators, she provided several accounts of her pregnancies and the infants’ deaths. She acknowledged that the bodies belonged to children she had delivered, but she denied intentionally killing them.
Her statements became a central part of the case. Prosecutors argued that inconsistencies in her explanations, combined with the forensic findings and the extraordinary concealment of the bodies, demonstrated consciousness of guilt. O’Dell continued to insist that the children had died during or shortly after birth without deliberate violence.
The Murder Trial
O’Dell was tried in Sullivan County Court in Monticello, New York. The prosecution relied heavily on forensic specialists because no living eyewitness could describe the births or deaths. Experts examined the infants’ remains and testified about signs that the children had breathed and survived delivery.
The defense challenged the reliability of conclusions drawn from remains that were nearly twenty years old. O’Dell’s attorneys argued that the prosecution could not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the infants had been murdered rather than stillborn. They also questioned whether investigators could determine exactly what had occurred during unattended births decades earlier.
Prosecutors initially sought convictions for first-degree murder. The jury rejected those counts but found O’Dell guilty of three counts of second-degree murder under a depraved-indifference theory. The verdict was returned on December 16, 2003.
Conviction and Sentence
On January 27, 2004, judgment was entered against O’Dell on all three murder convictions. The following day, she was sentenced to an indeterminate prison term of 25 years to life. The sentence required her to serve at least 25 years before becoming eligible for release consideration.
Before sentencing, O’Dell again denied killing her children. She maintained that her mother was responsible or that the infants had not been born alive. The court rejected those claims in light of the jury’s findings and the forensic evidence.
Appeal
O’Dell appealed her convictions, challenging aspects of the trial and the evidence admitted against her. On February 2, 2006, the New York Appellate Division upheld the judgment. The appellate court concluded that the evidence was legally sufficient to support the three second-degree murder convictions.
The decision left the sentence of 25 years to life in place. O’Dell remained incarcerated in the New York state prison system, with parole eligibility arising only after completion of the minimum portion of her sentence.
Legacy of the Case
The Diane O’Dell case is remembered not only because three newborns were murdered, but because their remains were hidden and moved around the country for so many years. The absence of names, graves and public records left the infants almost entirely unknown outside the evidence presented at their mother’s trial.
The case also demonstrated the challenges of prosecuting decades-old infant deaths. Investigators had no timely autopsies, medical documentation or witnesses to the deliveries. The prosecution depended on modern forensic examination of badly deteriorated remains, O’Dell’s own statements and the circumstances surrounding her concealment of the children.
Although exact dates and the names of the three victims have never been publicly established, the confirmed years of their deaths were 1982, 1983 and 1985. Their discovery on May 14, 2003, ended nearly twenty years of concealment and led to O’Dell’s conviction for three separate murders.
