Grisly Yolo plight: Baby’s corpse, few clues – infanticide case from the Bee archives in 2007

On January 27, 2020, Yolo County officials announced that Paul Allen Perez was suspected of killing his five infant children starting in 1992 using DNA evidence to solve the cold case of the infant in 2007 and four of his siblings in later years. The following day at his arraignment on five counts of murder, Perez pleaded not guilty. This is a reprint of The Sacramento Bee’s original story, published April 3, 2007.

Yolo County authorities said Monday they are stymied by the discovery late last week of the badly decomposed remains of a baby in a canal near Woodland.

A fisherman was at a canal off County Road 22 near the Sacramento River around 4:30 p.m. Thursday when he discovered a canister in the water, Yolo County Sheriff’s Sgt. Dale Johnson said. He retrieved the canister and found the baby inside.

The baby’s body was so badly decomposed authorities couldn’t tell its race or sex. It had been in the water for six months or longer, said Robert LaBrash, supervising deputy coroner for the county Sheriff’s Department.

A forensic pathologist and anthropologist are examining the remains. They’ll likely do DNA analysis and study the baby’s bone structure to determine more about the child.

The baby was probably younger than 3 months old, LaBrash said.

The Sheriff’s Department has not received any missing persons reports on infants in that age range recently, Johnson said.

It’s going to be hard to determine exactly how the baby died, LaBrash said.

“It’s kind of a long shot on this one,” he said. “We can at least determine age. The other direction is to get the DNA and we can get the sex.”

Toxicology tests will also be done, LaBrash said, but, again, the state and age of the baby lower the odds of conclusive results.

Several heavy objects weighed down the canister containing the baby, LaBrash said. He would not describe the canister or the items weighing it down. He did say there was a diaper inside the canister.

The spot where the baby was found is just off a road that connects Woodland and West Sacramento. Johnson said the body was about 30 or 40 feet from the road, which runs parallel to Interstate 5.

The canal -- which is popular for fishing -- contains water at various depths throughout the year and is a little shallow at the moment because of the relatively dry season.

The canister had probably not moved much -- it likely was put in the water near where it was found, LaBrash said.

Yolo County is laced with irrigation ditches for agriculture, which are popular fishing alternatives to the Sacramento River, said Dan Bacher of Fish Sniffer magazine in Elk Grove. He said anglers typically fish for black bass, catfish or crappie.

The fisherman who made last week’s discovery was using a bow and arrow to catch fish. He could not be reached Monday for comment.

“He was upset,” Johnson said. “This was obviously something he did not want to discover.”

Until more information is available, authorities said they are hesitant to draw conclusions about the baby’s death.

“It could be homicide, it could be unnatural, it could be natural,” LaBrash said.

Authorities are asking anyone with details about the baby’s death to call the Sheriff’s Department at (530) 668-5280.

Former Bee staff writer M.S. Enkoji contributed to this report.