Foul Play in Baby Deaths Is Unlikely, Coroner Says

Three infants whose decades-old remains were found in locked trunks last year probably died of natural causes, the county coroner announced Thursday.

The remains were found by Kathleen Manning in trunks she inherited from her mother, Cheri Herzog, who died in 1999. Herzog’s personal effects went into storage for four years until Manning began going through them last August.

According to a statement from the Anoka County coroner, the infants were two boys and a girl. They were full-term or nearly full-term when they died, and their deaths probably occurred in the 1960s, the statement said.

Sheriff’s Lt. Paul Sommer said that DNA tests showed two of the infants were Herzog’s. Tests on the third baby were inconclusive, but Sommer said investigators believed that child was also Herzog’s.

The coroner’s statement said there was a family history of hemolytic disease of the newborn, which can cause infant death.

“Although the exact cause of death cannot be determined, with the history of hemolytic disease of the newborn and extensive investigation of all the circumstances, it is felt the manner of death is probably natural,” the statement said.

The disease occurs when the blood types of the mother and fetus are incompatible.

Prenatal treatment for the disease wasn’t available until 1968, said Dr. Christopher Moertel, lead physician in hematology and oncology at St. Paul Children’s Hospital. Deaths from the disease are now virtually nonexistent in developed countries, he added.

Investigators said last year that they hadn’t found anyone who knew of Herzog being pregnant, but that many of the people who knew her then had died.