Solved: UGA police ID mother who allegedly killed baby 27 years ago inside UGA dormitory

The person who authorities say stabbed to death a newborn baby on the University of Georgia campus 27 years ago has been identified as a former student who committed suicide eight years after the crime that shocked Athens.

UGA police released documents to the Athens Banner-Herald under an open records request that shows police recently closed the case after determining the identity of the woman who allegedly gave birth, then stabbed her baby to death in a bathroom of the Oglethorpe House dormitory on Jan. 8, 1996.

The woman, Kathryn Anne Grant, was enrolled at UGA and living in Oglethorpe House at the time of the slaying, but she withdrew from UGA in the spring of 1996, according to UGA police reports generated by Maj. Jeff Hammock and Capt. Will Graham.

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Grant, who grew up in Columbia, S.C., committed suicide at age 29 in 2004 in Wilkes County, according to police. There were no documents found by police that Grant was interviewed about the baby's death during the initial investigation.

“I am appreciative of the dedication of all of the personnel involved in this effort – both those who work at the UGA Police Department and our partners, such as the scientists at Othram Inc.,” UGA Police Chief Daniel Silk noted in a statement released with the documents.

“However, while I recognize the significance of closing this case, I have to simultaneously acknowledge the heartbreaking nature of the tragedy that took place,” Silk noted. “I was a patrol officer in Athens when this occurred in 1996. I am keenly aware of the attention the case generated over the years and I have been moved by outpouring of concern and care from the UGA community and beyond.”

Silk said the technology needed to solve the case did not exist in 1996, but he praised the “exhaustive work” by the original investigators that was vital to putting this case to bed many years later.

A recap of what happened in 1996

The infant’s body was found in a basement bathroom of Oglethorpe House shortly after 4 p.m. Jan. 9, 1996. The report shows that custodians cleaning the bathroom found blood on and around a toilet and droplets leading to a trash can, where they reported finding an infant covered in blood. Police determined it was a male child and about 8 pounds.

The baby, christened as “Jonathan Foundling" by police officers, was buried in Evergreen Memorial Park in Athens in a funeral attended by more than 200 people. UGA police served as pallbearers.

The case remained unsolved until March 2021, when detectives decided to use the new science of genealogical genetic testing of DNA. The officers selected the firm of Othram Inc. of Texas, which only works such cases with law enforcement.

How detectives and science found the mother and father

UGA detectives gathered samples of blood that had been collected from the placenta of the mother and from the baby. Detectives Graham and Hammock personally took these samples to the lab in Woodlands, Texas, on June 3, 2021.

By Sept. 20, 2021, the lab reported to detectives that it found two persons who could be related to the victim and that one of them “would likely be the father of the deceased newborn infant.” Officers obtained the names of the men and determined that both brothers were enrolled as students at UGA at the time of the slaying as well as earlier months when the mother would have become pregnant.

The officers met with prosecuting attorneys at the Western Circuit District Attorney’s Office to discuss the case and the lawyers assisted in preparing a search warrant to secure DNA from the men.

On June 16, 2022, the two officers traveled to Richmond Hill to interview one man and learned through Fort Stewart authorities that this person was out of the state and it was unknown when he would return.

However, on Dec. 12, 2022, Hammock reached the man by phone and he agreed to meet them on Dec. 14 at Fort Stewart. The meeting occurred, and the man confirmed he was living on campus in 1994-95 and there was a student with whom he had a sexual relationship in the spring of 1995.

The man disclosed he could only remember the woman’s last name as Grant and that after their relationship ended, he only saw her once more on campus.

With this information, detectives reported they began searching for any female students named Grant and found that Kathryn Grant had resided in room 301 of Oglethorpe House on Lumpkin Street. But the detectives also searched and found an obituary for Grant that showed she died in Wilkes County on July 31, 2004.

On Dec. 15, the detectives reported they searched campus records on Grant and noticed that her grades “appeared to depart from her normal averages both during the spring quarter of 1995 and the winter quarter of 1996. She also withdrew from a couple of classes in the fall of 1995. She transferred to Newberry College in South Carolina.

The time period in which her grades began dropping coincided with the time she became pregnant and when the baby was born, according to the report.

The detectives then spoke to Georgia Bureau of Investigation agents in Athens and learned the State Crime Lab had ruled Grant’s death in Wilkes County as suicide.

The report does not disclose how her death occurred, but according to GBI records, her body was found Aug. 4, 2004, in a deeply wooded area along Little River. She was reported missing by a roommate a few days earlier on Aug. 1. The GBI released its suicide conclusion in 2005.

'This case is exceptionally cleared'

On Dec. 20, 2022, detectives sent the DNA swabs collected from the potential father to the lab for analysis. On Jan. 16, 2023, the lab notified police that the man “and the deceased newborn infant share a 100 percent parent/child relationship.”  Police then informed the man that he had fathered the child.

The lab told police that while they could not exclude Grant as the mother, they needed DNA  from a close relative to make a positive identification. The detectives located Grant’s only sibling, a brother in Savannah.

Then on Jan. 23 this year, police contacted the brother and he agreed to a meeting with detectives in Savannah on Jan. 25.  At this meeting, the officers reported they disclosed what they were investigating and that they had a search warrant for his DNA.

The brother explained that he never knew his sister was pregnant and that in December 1995, he was actually stationed in Alaska.

He “did make mention that if his sister had become pregnant, she probably would have hidden it from their parents if she could,” according to the report.

On Feb. 24, the detectives received an e-mail from the lab that the man’s DNA and the deceased infant “share a 100 percent” relationship and that this was the strongest relationship percentage that could show he was the baby’s uncle.

Police documented in their report that same day that “Kathryn Grant is the mother of the child.”

Based on all the facts, police said they reached the conclusion that Grant gave birth to the child and committed the acts that resulted in the child’s death.

And due to her own death, “this case is exceptionally cleared.”

This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: UGA police identify woman they believe killed her newborn on campus