Left in Trash, ‘Baby Hope’ Given Burial : Murder: Two years later, her slaying is unsolved, her identity unknown. But hundreds gather for her funeral in New York and pray that her killer will be brought to justice.

The little girl was someone’s daughter, someone’s granddaughter. But when she died, somebody stuffed her in a picnic cooler and threw her away like a piece of trash.

Two years later, her name remains unknown, her murder unsolved. But hundreds of mourners who know her only as “Baby Hope” gathered for her funeral Friday and prayed that somehow she could rest in peace.

“How could a girl with no connections . . . touch so many hearts?” asked the Rev. Rudolph Gonzales during the funeral at the Church of St. Elizabeth in upper Manhattan.

“ ‘Baby Hope’ has found the best in us. She leaves the world a better place. She places hope in us.”

Packed into the Roman Catholic church were mothers fighting back tears, children clutching yellow daisies and detectives from the 34th Precinct, vowing to somehow crack a case that has baffled them since July 23, 1991.

On that day a highway worker smelled a stench coming from a blue picnic cooler and tipped it over. Out tumbled some full Coke cans--and a naked, bound body.

Helen Hartz, a city emergency medical technician, remembers getting the call.

“When we first heard about it, we thought ‘Oh, it must be a dog,’ ” Hartz said Friday outside the church. “But when we got there, I just couldn’t believe what I saw. . . . I still have nightmares about it.”

An autopsy later found that the body was that of a Hispanic girl, probably 4 or 5 years old. She had been sexually molested and smothered.

The city police detectives who went to work on the case were certain someone would quickly come forward to claim the girl. But days passed. Then months. And now, years.

During that span, detectives fielded hundreds of calls on a missing children’s hot line, passed out thousands of fliers with a composite drawing of the girl, and hit thousands of dead ends.

“No . . . nothing,” said Lt. Joe Reznic when asked after the funeral about new leads in the case.

As the frustration mounted, so did the detectives’ affection for the anonymous victim. They began calling her “our baby.” Eventually it became “Baby Hope”--”because we all hope and pray we solve the case,” said Jerry Giorgio, a veteran detective who has worked long hours on the case.

The detectives found their prayers were shared by others.

Hundreds of letters poured into their office lamenting the death of “Baby Hope” and rooting for the capture of her killer. Psychics offered help. One woman wrote a song called “Baby Hope,” praising “her mothers and fathers dressed in blue.”

With her body no longer needed for the investigation, the detectives recently decided it was time to give the girl a proper burial. They paid for all the arrangements, including a headstone engraved: “Baby Hope.”

Her body was dressed in a white Communion dress, put in a white coffin and carried to the funeral in a hearse with a police motorcycle escort. Afterward, the detectives headed to a Bronx grave site to bury the girl, then got back to work.

“We’re all happy that we could finally lay her to rest, but by no means is this case closed,” Giorgio said.