After more than 17 years, a Michigan woman has been arrested on two counts of first-degree murder in connection to the deaths of her newborn twin sons.
According to Cook County Sheriff Thomas Dart, Antoinette Briley, 41, was charged Friday night in connection with the 2003 deaths of her newborn twin sons. Briley was taken into custody Thursday during a traffic stop in Oak Lawn.
In the June 2003 incident, a Waste Management employee was emptying trash bins in an alley in unincorporated Stickney Township when she saw two small bodies in the front lift bucket of her garbage truck.
An autopsy revealed that the boys were born alive and had died of asphyxiation, and their deaths were ruled homicides.
The case remained unsolved for 15 years before the Cook County Sheriff’s Office reopened the case. Using advances in genetic genealogy, detectives were able to identify the birth mother’s DNA, and after detectives traveled to Holland, Michigan and obtained a discarded item containing Briley’s DNA, they were able to make a positive match.
This week, authorities learned that Briley was in Cook County and took her into custody after a traffic stop.
She is scheduled to appear in bond court for a hearing on the charges Saturday.
