The arrest of Hepay Juma changed a long-running public search for clues into a criminal case that still leaves key medical details undisclosed.
MANCHESTER, N.H. — The case of a newborn girl found floating in Pine Island Pond last spring remained one of Manchester’s most haunting mysteries for 11 months before investigators announced they had arrested the child’s mother on a reckless second-degree murder charge.
Authorities said Hepay Juma, 26, of Manchester was arrested Feb. 26 in the death of Baby Jane “Grace” Doe, the infant recovered from Pine Island Pond on March 27, 2025. The arrest marked the first public break in a case that had unfolded largely through small official updates, a public naming of the child and repeated pleas for tips. It also brought the first direct statement from prosecutors about criminal responsibility: Senior Assistant Attorney General Nicholas Chong Yen said authorities had enough evidence to allege that Juma caused the baby’s death and that the death was a homicide.
The timeline began with a call to police on the afternoon of March 27, 2025. Manchester officers responded to Pine Island Park off Brown Avenue at about 4 p.m. after someone reported a body in the pond. Police found a deceased infant in the water and immediately brought in the attorney general’s office, standard practice in suspicious deaths in New Hampshire. Officials soon said the child was a newborn girl, but they released little else. In the months that followed, the case took on a name and a face of sorts. The baby became known publicly as Baby Grace. Police and prosecutors sought help from residents, and local outlets tracked each small development, including reward announcements and renewed calls for information. For much of that time, investigators kept the central facts tightly held, including how the baby died and who they believed had placed her in the pond.
That restraint shaped the public understanding of the case. Investigators stressed that the pond location did not necessarily mean the mother lived in Manchester, signaling that they were not limiting the inquiry to the immediate neighborhood. They also disclosed a narrow time window, later saying they believed the baby’s body had been placed in Pine Island Pond sometime between March 25 and March 27, 2025. Beyond that, officials stayed cautious. In a later television interview after the arrest, Chong Yen said only that the infant was newborn and declined to specify more precisely how long she had lived. He also declined to describe the exact circumstances of her death. Those omissions suggest that the state views some of the most important facts as evidence to be presented in court rather than in public briefings.
The case also developed an emotional civic dimension unusual even in serious crime investigations. Because no parent had been publicly identified and because the victim was an infant, local officials and community members treated Baby Grace as a child who should not pass unnoticed. A funeral was held in May 2025. That moment became part of the case’s public memory, turning the investigation into more than a search for a suspect. It also created a sharper contrast when the arrest came nearly a year later. By then, Baby Grace had become a symbol of vulnerability in Manchester, and the state’s decision to accuse the child’s mother gave the story a grim answer to the question that had hovered over the case from the start.
Prosecutors have described the charge in legal rather than narrative terms. Juma is accused of reckless second-degree murder for causing the death of her child under circumstances showing extreme indifference to the value of human life. That language is broad, and it leaves many practical questions unanswered. The public record reviewed for this story does not state the baby’s cause of death. It does not say whether the child was born indoors or outdoors, whether anyone else was present, or what evidence investigators used to identify Juma and connect her to the infant. Law and Crime reported the prosecutor’s public characterization that the baby “was discarded,” a phrase that signals the state’s view of the conduct but does not fill in the forensic narrative. Those missing details are likely to matter as the case moves deeper into court.
The first courtroom steps came quickly. Local reporting said Juma waived arraignment on Feb. 27, was held without bail and reserved the right to revisit bail at a later point. A probable cause hearing was set for March 5. That hearing, and any later indictment or superior court filings, would normally provide a clearer public record of the evidence. Until then, the state’s public case rests on a short arrest announcement, brief comments from prosecutors and the outline of the investigation already known to residents. The defense position has not been fully developed in public reporting reviewed for this story, and no public explanation from Juma appears in those accounts.
The mystery of who Baby Grace was has partly been answered, at least in the state’s account. The deeper questions of how she died and what evidence will support the charge remain for the courts.
Author note: Last updated March 25, 2026.