Boston-area group on a mission to find justice for Baby Doe

The tables in the cafeteria at St. John’s Church in Winthrop on Thursday were covered in information volunteers were hoping to distribute in hopes of finding justice for Baby Doe.

Packets of flyers and other information were stacked in manilla folders, lists of schools in Boston, Chelsea, Winthrop, Everett, Revere and Lynn lay out on display. All that was missing were the groups of people the Justice For Baby Doe crew were hoping for.

“We didn’t know what to expect today,” Debbie Larson, a former Winthrop resident said. “We’re going forward with this no matter what and we’ll do a better job getting information out there next time. Unfortunately, we might have another chance.”

Larson, former Winthrop resident, hosted the first candlelight vigil for Baby Doe on Deer Island and said almost a hundred people were waiting when she arrived 45 minutes early.

“There really are no words,” Lorraine Noel of Malden said. “It’s been two months and that’s too long. We would want someone to do the same thing for anyone in the world, really. It’s so horrible that this is a very young child in a tragedy in a place where we all called or still call home.”

Eventually, four volunteers arrived. They came from Hyde Park, and were ready to put all of their efforts into posting flyers in Boston neighborhoods.

“I’m going to hand out flyers in Hyde Park, Roxbury, Mattapan, the Cathedral Church and anywhere else I can,” Jeannie Spinazola, a Hyde Park resident who grew up in East Boston said. “As a mother, I have no words. Someone has to know who she is.”

Baby Doe was found with her blanket in a trash bag on Deer Island on June 25 when a woman walking her dog found the remains. At the time of the discovery, Suffolk County District Attorney Dan Conley said that she had not been there long. The autopsy came back inconclusive, and the first real break in the case came earlier this month when lab tests showed that pollen found on the child came from the Greater Boston Area.

Efforts to identify Baby Doe have spread far and wide, with millions of social media hits, billboards on the highways, candlelight vigils and masses. The identity of the little girl, said to have brown hair, brown eyes who weighed about 30 lbs is still a mystery.

Michael Rapaglia of Methuen works as a cab driver in Malden, and said he would put flyers in his and every other cab on the fleet.

“As a father, I can’t imagine who would do something that would put the little girl in this situation,” Rapagalia said. “Where are her parents? Where is her family? C’mon now. This isn’t right. She shouldn’t have to be buried without a name.