A Virginia mother was arrested Wednesday after a 30-year cold case investigation linked her to the drowning of her newborn son in a Long Island movie theater toilet.
Michelle Chronick Tyson, 59, was indicted on two counts of second-degree murder following DNA confirmation that she was the biological mother of the infant found dead on Nov. 18, 1996, the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office announced Thursday.
The baby was discovered inside a toilet in a women’s bathroom at the Commack Multiplex shortly after 12:30 a.m., authorities said. The theater has since closed. The Suffolk County Medical Examiner’s Office ruled the death a homicide, determining the cause to be “asphyxia with submersion in water.”
A blood sample collected from the newborn was preserved as evidence, but the investigation stalled for decades until the Cold Case Task Force submitted it to a private laboratory. The lab generated what prosecutors called a “Single Nucleotide Polymorphism DNA profile,” enabling investigators to identify Tyson as the likely mother.
On Aug. 26, authorities executed a search warrant to obtain a buccal swab from Tyson. The test confirmed the genetic match, prosecutors said.
Tyson was taken into custody Wednesday in Hampton, Virginia. She was extradited to Long Island and arraigned Thursday on the second-degree murder indictment. A judge ordered her held without bail.
“As alleged, this defendant made a choice back in 1996 to take her newborn child’s life before he ever had the chance to experience the world beyond his first few breaths,” District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney said in a statement.
“The alleged circumstances of this infant’s death are deeply disturbing, and the fact that nearly three decades have passed does not diminish the gravity of this crime.”
If convicted on the top count, Tyson faces 25 years to life in prison.
Tierney continued, “every child deserves the chance to live, to grow and to thrive.”
“This infant was robbed of that chance,” he added, “and we are committed to pursuing justice for a life that was tragically and selfishly cut short.”
The Cold Case Task Force that broke the investigation is a specialized unit combining members of the Suffolk County Police Department and the district attorney’s office.
Tyson remains in custody as the case proceeds through Suffolk County court.