Minnesota woman pleads guilty to leaving newborn to die

RED WING, Minn. (AP) — A Minnesota woman has admitted to leaving her newborn baby to die on the banks of the Mississippi River in 2003.

Fifty-year-old Jennifer Matter pleaded guilty Wednesday to second-degree murder in the baby’s death.

Matter admitted she left the baby boy after giving birth in Frontenac on the shore of Lake Pepin, a body of water on the Mississippi River. Prosecutors say DNA evidence also links Matter to a baby girl found by the Mississippi in 1999.  Matter has not been charged in that case.

Investigators arrested Matter in May 2022 at her homein Belvidere Township. She will be sentenced April 28.