It’s a quiet, overcast day in Highland Memorial Park cemetery as Susan Schulenberg stands over a small, dark stone embedded into the grass.
She places a few bright flowers beside the grave, which has the words “With our Heavenly Father loved and remembered” inscribed on the face, and the names David and Rosa. More than 20 years ago, on November 18, 2005, she had stood in much the same place for the burial of the two babies.
Schulenberg has no personal connection to the two children buried there — both had died after being abandoned by their biological parents — but Rest in His Arms, a nonprofit she founded in 2005, has organized the burials of more than 50 abandoned infants in the last 21 years, including David and Rosa.
Earlier this month, Schulenberg was shocked to learn that, according to authorities, David’s biological mother had been identified with new DNA technology and charged with involuntary manslaughter, potentially bringing a 25-year-old cold case to a close.
Standing above the infants’ grave, Schulenberg reflected on the heartbreaking situation, made all the more tragic by Illinois’ Safe Haven law — passed just days before his 2001 death — that might have saved the two babies.
Cold case
On August 26, 2001, Round Lake Beach police officers responded to a report of a dead infant in a bag in a dumpster behind a grocery store on Rollins Road. Among those at the scene were Ryan Rodriguez — today the department’s chief of police, but at the time a community service officer — and Paul Grace, who would later become a Round Lake Beach detective and then commander of investigations.
Rodriguez vividly remembers the day; it’s remained with both men over the last 25 years of their careers. He was “a young man” at the time, Rodriguez said, but looking back now, “a bit older and wiser of a man,” with a family of his own, the case is deeply personal.
“I have a more profound appreciation for the value of life, and in particular the value of our children’s lives,” he said. “Seeing how quickly my own daughter has grown, it’s a case that has resonated with me in a very personal way as I have matured and developed.”
The case would go cold, but Grace said it continued to stick with him. In 2015, as a detective, he took another look at the evidence. There “wasn’t a viable path forward” for the DNA casework needed, he said, an issue that would remain until 2023.
By then commander of investigations, Grace took yet another look. Genealogy databases had become an effective tool for cracking cold cases, and police department officials put together a proposal to the village to get the funding.
It wasn’t a cheap effort, Rodriguez said, thanking the village for supporting the department in its investigation. Today, with DNA tools advancing, the barrier for cold cases can be more financial than technological, he said.
Rodriguez also praised Grace for his continued pursuit of the case, even after it had faded from many people’s memories.
“This little baby was left in this world with no champion,” he said. “But for Commander Grace’s own individual passion … but for picking up that file, there was nobody out there advocating for this case to be investigated.”
The DNA evidence and genealogy database was no guarantee they’d get a lead, Grace said. It required finding a biological relative who could make some identification of the biological mother. But they got “the best-case scenario,” identifying the biological father, who Rodriguez said hadn’t even been aware of the child’s existence.
That ultimately led the investigation to Jennifer Lebron, 48, who was charged earlier this month with involuntary manslaughter.
Safe Haven
Both Rodriguez and Schulenberg emphasized the need to inform people about the Safe Haven law. The Illinois Abandoned Newborn Infant Protection Act allows unharmed newborns up to 30-days-old to be handed to staff at hospitals, police stations, and firehouses, with no questions asked and no fear of prosecution.
It was signed in Illinois just nine days before David was found dead in a dumpster, and Schulenberg wondered if the tragedy might have been avoided if Lebron had known about it.
Schulenberg recalled once speaking at a high school about the Safe Haven law, and a student coming up to her afterwards. He told her he had been left at a safe haven as a baby, and grew up with an adoptive family.
“I said a couple of things that had really touched him. One was his mom, his biological mom, had loved him enough to bring him somewhere safe. He said, ‘Nobody’s ever told me that,'” Schulenberg recalled.
Even decades after its passing, there remains a lack of awareness of the law, she said, meaning the same headlines continue to appear in the news. The incidents garner anger from many people, including Schulenberg, but she also feels deep frustration and sadness.
Baby David
While Schulenberg calls the infant David, and it’s the name she said she put on his death certificate when he was buried, he remained unnamed for years in a morgue after his death. Another organization, AMT Children of Hope, named him “Jacob Hope” according to a Lake County State’s Attorney’s Office news release earlier this month.
Schulenberg, a religious woman, often chooses names with spiritual significance — “David” is the king from the Old Testament, a little shepherd boy who became something great, she said. The act of naming the infants is important, not just for legal reasons, but for honoring them in death, she said.
“We’re all called by a name; God knew our names from the moment he created us,” Schulenberg said. “He had a purpose for creating these children. And while it’s tragic and sad that David’s not going to be here to celebrate his 25th birthday, God had a plan.”
David and Rosa were the second and third infants Rest in His Arms helped bury. The first was in September 2005; a Grayslake baby found dead in a landfill that Schulenberg learned about from a Chicago Tribune story.
A few weeks after that first funeral, she said, the Lake County Coroner’s Office called, saying they had another two abandoned infants that had been kept for several years by that point. That second joint funeral was covered by the Tribune.
Standing once again at the infants’ grave, Schulenberg said she hadn’t visited for some time, although she noted the cemetery manager will sometimes come out and sing to them. When Schulenberg heard the news that David’s mother had reportedly been identified and charged, she was left with a flurry of emotions.
“We want justice for these babies. We stand in to be their parents in death, but it’s not right what happened to them, that they were thrown away,” Schulenberg said.
But at the same time, the Safe Haven law was created to help parents in crisis to avoid such tragedies, she said. If the mom had known about the law, maybe David would be alive today, getting ready to celebrate his 25th birthday in August.
“We don’t want to have to throw a mother in jail for the rest of her life. That’s not the purpose of the law. The law is to prevent her from ever being prosecuted,” Schulenberg said.
Schulenberg said she wants to talk to Lebron at some point, to see what happened all those years ago and why she hadn’t sought out help. Had she known about the new law? Couldn’t there have been some other option?
“Because if we could know that, I think we could help to prevent this from happening again. If we can hear those mothers say … whatever the issue was, maybe we could solve it,” she said.
While there’s some sense of closure to be gleaned from the recent development, even if it’s mixed with a new wave of “unbelievable sadness,” Schulenberg has been left to wrestle with fundamental issues: “Justice and mercy,” and how to reconcile the two.
