An extensive Sheriff’s Police cold case investigation has led to murder charges against a Michigan woman for the deaths of her newborn twin sons more than 17 years ago, Cook County Sheriff Thomas J. Dart announced over the weekend.
Antoinette Briley, 41, of Holland, Mich., was charged Friday night with two counts of first-degree murder for the deaths of her sons.
On June 6, 2003, the victims were discovered by a Waste Management employee who was emptying trash bins in an alley in the 4800 block of South Latrobe Avenue in unincorporated Stickney Township and saw the bodies in the front lift bucket of her garbage truck.
A subsequent autopsy determined the victims were born alive and died of asphyxiation, and the deaths were ruled homicides.
Sheriff’s Police conducted a thorough investigation at the time, but the case remained unsolved.
In 2018, Sheriff’s Police reopened the case and utilized DNA from evidence recovered from the scene in an effort to identify the birth mother using the latest developments in genetic genealogy. A breakthrough from that research and subsequent investigations allowed detectives to eventually identify Briley as the victims’ potential birth mother.
As part of the investigation, Sheriff’s Police detectives traveled to Holland, Mich., and obtained a discarded item containing Briley’s DNA, which was matched to the DNA from the victims.
On Dec. 3, 2020, Sheriff’s Police obtained information that Briley was in Cook County and took her into custody after a traffic stop in Oak Lawn.
Republished courtesy of Cook County Sheriff's Office. Mugshot credit: CCSO.