Last November, tragically, a baby was found dead in a recycling bin in Saskatoon. And the Saskatoon Police Service has been working to identify the mother ever since.

The baby was described as a recently born girl but the autopsy wasn’t able to determine the date of birth. The infant was found in the 400 block of 5th Avenue North shortly before 9 a.m. on November 8th, 2019.

Investigators, after spending months following up on what evidence was there, as well as tips from the public, have now turned to science.

There was DNA from the mother in the bag in which the baby was found. That DNA was sent to a U.S. based company to provide predictions of the appearance of the mother.  Parabon® Snapshot® DNA Phenotyping Services provides predictions of human appearance from DNA.

The DNA analysis predicts with 97.8% confidence the mother has light brown skin. There is an 88.8% confidence she will have hazel or brown eyes. Likelihood of black hair is rated at 99.99% while the chance of a few freckles is predicted with 67.4% confidence. The analysis indicates she is of Native American ancestry as well as smaller contributions from Europe and East Asia  (57.89%, 28.66%, 12.79% respectively).