Pine Bluff, Arkansas – A 34-year-old homicide investigation in Pine Bluff has led to an arrest after investigators used DNA evidence and a renewed examination of the case to identify the mother of a newborn who was found dead in 1992.
Arkansas State Police and the Pine Bluff Police Department announced Monday that 52-year-old Stephanie Amos of Jacksonville was arrested in connection with the decades-old case. Authorities said she was taken into custody on a capital murder warrant and booked into the Jefferson County Detention Center.
The investigation dates back to June 22, 1992, when a newborn boy was discovered inside a trash bag in the 1000 block of South Mulberry Street in Pine Bluff. According to officials, the baby had suffered craniocerebral trauma, meaning he died after receiving a sharp blow to the skull.
Police classified the infant’s death as a homicide, but the case remained unresolved for more than three decades.
A new effort to find answers began on Oct. 8, 2025, when Arkansas State Police and the Pine Bluff Police Department reopened the investigation. Investigators began reviewing the evidence again and followed new leads, with DNA playing a central role in the renewed effort.
The newborn’s DNA profile was entered into the Combined DNA Index System, a move that eventually helped investigators identify Amos as a person connected to the case.
Investigators determined that Amos had lived near the location where the infant was found in 1992. They also developed information from people who knew her at the time. Those individuals recalled that Amos had been pregnant before the baby’s body was discovered.
Investigators interviewed Amos on Nov. 6, 2025, as they continued working to establish what happened more than 30 years earlier.
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During that interview, authorities said Amos acknowledged that the infant was hers and admitted to disposing of the baby’s body. Further DNA testing later confirmed that she was the child’s biological mother.
The investigation continued after that interview as authorities worked to complete the evidence and prepare the case for prosecutors. Once investigators finished their work, the case was submitted to the Jefferson County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office for review.
The arrest came on Sept. 14, when Arkansas State Police and Pine Bluff police officers took Amos into custody on the capital murder warrant.
The case demonstrates how investigators can return to unsolved crimes years or even decades after they occurred. In this investigation, authorities combined information gathered during the original case with newer investigative work and DNA technology to identify a person connected to the infant’s death.
Officials said the resolution also reflects cooperation among several agencies involved in the investigation. The Pine Bluff Police Department specifically thanked Arkansas State Police, the Arkansas State Crime Laboratory and the Jefferson County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office for their work.
The department said the passage of time did not reduce the importance of determining what happened to the newborn.
For investigators, the case remained an unresolved homicide until the investigation was reopened in 2025. The renewed examination of the evidence ultimately provided authorities with a path toward identifying the child’s biological mother and seeking criminal charges.
The arrest brings a significant development to a case that had remained unsolved since the summer of 1992. Authorities emphasized the role of forensic science, DNA analysis and cooperation between law enforcement and prosecutors in reaching the point where an arrest could be made.
More than 34 years after the newborn was found dead, investigators have now identified the child’s mother and made an arrest in the long-running Pine Bluff homicide case.
