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 today.
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 travelled to Holland, Mich. and obtained a discarded item containing Briley’s DNA, which was matched to the DNA from the victims.
On Thursday, Sheriff’s Police obtained information that Briley was in Cook County and took her into custody after a traffic stop in Oak Lawn.
Briley is scheduled to appear at the George N. Leighton Criminal Courts Building at 12:30 p.m. today for a bond hearing on the charges.
The public is reminded that the defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty by the government in a court of law.