BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. — The mother of an unidentified baby found dead floating in 2018 in the Boynton Beach Inlet has been arrested and charged with first-degree murder, the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office announced Thursday afternoon.
Arya Singh, 29, was taken into custody after deputies confirmed a DNA match with her and the baby, among other identifying factors, according to law enforcement.
The infant was discovered by an off-duty firefighter who found her naked and floating in the Atlantic Ocean about 75-100 feet from shore on June 1, 2018, he initially thought she was a doll. Authorities called the unknown baby at the time "Baby June."
Detectives said they began the case by matching DNA to the father, who reportedly didn't know about the infant.
"He knew that he had a girlfriend around that time that told him that she had been pregnant but had taken care of it. He was thinking that she perhaps had an abortion," said the lead detective during the news conference.
Detectives said they were able to obtain covert DNA samples from Singh, which confirmed that she was the mother. They added that they didn't believe the father had anything to do with how the baby ended up in the inlet, so they built their case against the mother without notifying her.
"We were able to get search warrants for phone records, for GPS data location. We were even lucky to get that from four and half years ago," the detective said.
Detectives learned that Singh had been at Boyton Beach Inet on May 30, 2018. They also learned through Singh's Google search history that she that had looked up the area and searched local news about the case.
"She did see the first articles on June 1 about 5 p.m. and so she did know about that [the case] and she's come forward in all this time," the investigator said.
Singh told detectives that she didn't know she was pregnant until she gave birth on May 30, 2018, and she didn't know if the baby was alive or dead.
Detectives learned that the baby wasn't born at a hospital and wasn't named; they checked every child born in Palm Beach and Broward counties and couldn't find a match for the infant.
“It’s gut-wrenching and we hate seeing it and we really desperately want to get to the bottom of what happened,” Capt. Steven Strivelli said at the time.
"Today is a good day for justice," said Dave Aronberg, State Attorney for Palm Beach County on Thursday.
This case was the pilot case for a forensic biology unit, which was a first for the state of Florida.
"If you're a victim, we're never going to leave you behind," Palm Beach County Ric Bradshaw said, in part. "We are never going to forget the fact that you're a victim."