Police use billboard tactic to try to ID Baby Doe
Baby Doe’s face has been all over the news since a woman found her tiny body in a trash bag on Deer Island a few weeks ago. Now, it’ll be on 84 billboards in 50 locations throughout Massachusetts in a joint effort by police and MassDOT to identify the toddler.
“Every pair of eyes brings us closer to the tip that will identify this little girl,’’ said Jake Wark, press secretary for the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office. “The investigators working on this case believe the critical tip will come from the public.’’
Billboard campaigns are rarely used in murder investigations. The only other high profile example in recent memory dates back to the 1990s, when the mother of a murdered airport worker paid for billboards to try to find her daughter’s killer, said David Procopio, spokesperson for the state police.
The body of 27-year-old Susan Taraskiewicz was found in the trunk of her Toyota outside an auto body shop on September 13, 1992, 36 hours after she left her job as a baggage supervisor at Logan airport to pick up sandwiches for her co-workers.
“We were the first ones to put up a billboard for a murdered person,’’ Marlene Taraskiewicz told Boston.com. “I started out paying for mine, but Clear Channel eventually donated some in 2012. They’re the best thing.’’
Marlene said tips increased both directly after she started paying for the billboards, and again when Clear Channel donated billboards in 2012. Even though the killer still hasn’t been identified, she credits the billboards with keeping her daughter’s story in the public consciousness for more than two decades.
“It’s one thing to see pictures on the news, but so many people drive on that road and look at it day after day,’’ she said. “I hope it works to help them figure out who that little girl is. If nothing else, it’ll keep her in their minds.’’
The Baby Doe billboards will be up until August 4, but a spokesperson for MassDOT said they’ll extend if the state police ask them to. Anyone with information about who she might be can text the word “GIRL,’’ followed by their tip to 67283 or call the Suffolk County State Police Detective Unit at 617-396-5655.
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