SHEPPARD AIR FORCE BASE, Texas -- Nearly 38 years after a newborn boy was found dead among hospital linens from Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas, a cold case by the Air Force Office of Special Investigations has resulted in the child’s mother pleading guilty to second-degree murder.
Tammy Sue Kerns, a former Air Force member assigned to the Sheppard hospital in 1988, entered the plea Sept. 9 in federal court.
“This plea affirms a simple, immovable truth: time will never shield those who commit violent crimes in this district,” said U.S. Attorney Ryan Raybould, U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas. “It may take days, years, or as in this case, decades, but we will never stop pursuing these offenders and get justice for the victims.”
According to the Justice Department, Kerns admitted giving birth during a night shift, covering the newborn’s mouth until he stopped crying and breathing, then wrapping his body in hospital linens and placing him in a laundry bin.
“A case is never just a file on a shelf, it’s a promise,” said John Fine, chief of AFOSI Cold Case Team. “Decades may pass, but we do not walk away, we do not forget, and we will never stop fighting to find the truth and seek justice.”
For decades, investigators did not know who the infant was or who his parents were. The break came after AFOSI reopened the case and combined evidence preserved since 1988 with advances in forensic DNA analysis, genealogical research and decades-old personnel records.
The case was reopened in 2015, more than 25 years after the original investigation had run out of leads. Over the next decade, Air Force investigators returned to evidence collected in 1988 and applied advances in DNA analysis and forensic genealogy that eventually led them to the infant’s parents.
The evidence dated back to Aug. 4, 1988, when workers at local laundry company in Wichita Falls, Texas, found the body of the newborn boy among soiled linens sent from the U.S. Air Force Regional Hospital at Sheppard AFB.
At the time, all known pregnant patients and newborns at the hospital, and on the installation, were accounted for, according to court documents.
An autopsy the next day determined that the boy was full term and had been born alive. Examiners found no physical abnormalities or drugs in his system. His cause of death was recorded as hypovolemia.
Investigators tried to identify the infant and his parents, but the evidence available at the time yielded no suspect and the case was eventually closed.
But, after the investigation reopened in 2015, Special Agents conducted new interviews and reexamined evidence preserved from the original case.
Two years later, a Joint Pathology Center unit located genetic material from the infant and sent it to the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory for comparison through the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System, or CODIS.
The breakthrough came several years later. In May 2022, investigators used tissue preserved from the 1988 case for advanced DNA sequencing and genealogical research.
According to AFOSI, the approach allowed Special Agents to search for biological relationships and develop potential family connections without requiring a direct DNA match to an identified person in a traditional law enforcement database.
By 2023, genealogical research identified a possible biological relative of the infant. Investigators interviewed the individual in Dec. 2024, and DNA testing later confirmed he was the infant’s biological father.
That identification gave the investigation a new direction. With the father known, the Cold Case Team used military personnel records to narrow the pool of women who could have been the infant’s mother.
According to the Justice Department, that analysis led investigators to Kerns, whose Air Force assignment history placed her at Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland, before she transferred to Sheppard in 1988.
On May 20, 2025, AFOSI Special Agents interviewed Kerns at the Cobb County Police Department in Marietta, Georgia, near where she was living at the time.
During the interview, Kerns told investigators she was the infant’s mother, she had concealed her pregnancy and had not sought medical care. At the end of the interview, Kerns provided a DNA sample that confirmed she was the infant’s biological mother.
“Our commitment to securing justice for the victim remained absolute,” Fine said. “Through outstanding persistence, paired with advanced forensics and investigative genealogy, the team was ultimately able to resolve the case.”
Kerns had fully separated from the Air Force and was not retired, leading the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas to prosecute the case in federal court, charging her with second-degree murder. She pleaded guilty Sept. 9.
Fine added his team was grateful to base leadership, local and federal law enforcement partners, the Department of Justice, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for working alongside AFOSI to bring about this resolution.
Kerns faces up to life in federal prison, a $250,000 fine and five years of supervised release. She is scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 8, 2027, by Chief U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor.
"Although this tragic loss occurred nearly four decades ago, the passage of time has not diminished our commitment to the truth,” said Col. Joseph Wierenga, deputy commander of the 82nd Training Wing at Shepphard AFB. “On behalf of Sheppard Air Force Base, we are proud partners in this effort and hope these long‑awaited answers bring a meaningful sense of closure and healing to our installation and our community,”