On April 14, 1984, a baby boy with 28 knife wounds and a broken neck was found washed up on a beach in Ireland and it remains one of the country’s most shocking unsolved mysteries
A newborn baby was tragically found dead on a beach with 28 stab wounds and a broken neck — and neither his parents nor the killer have ever been identified.
The shocking discovery 42 years remains one of the most shocking unsolved mysteries Ireland has ever seen — and haunting cold cases is currently topical in the country. That’s because there is an ongoing search for missing women Deirdre Jacob and Jo Jo Dullard who are linked to evil rapist Larry Murphy, as reported by the Irish Mirror.
Here, we look back on the Kerry Babies case that resulted in the Irish state apologising to one woman after she became the centre of the disturbing scandal — despite being entirely innocent.
On April 14, 1984, local farmer Jack Griffin was jogging on White Strand beach at around 8pm in County Kerry when he made the most unimaginably horrific discovery — a dead five-day-old baby boy.
He later told the Irish Times: “It was pink in colour, face downwards with black hair and I thought to myself, it can’t be a baby, I was trying to say to myself it was a doll, but deep down I knew it wasn’t so I blessed myself.”
The tot, later named Baby John, had a broken neck and had been stabbed 28 times. His body had been washed up on the beach after being thrown into the sea.
The police murder squad arrived from Dublin to investigate — and they soon honed in on their number one suspect.
At the time, Joanne Hayes was a 25-year-old receptionist and a single mother. Despite being only four decades ago, Ireland was a different place, divorce and abortion were illegal, and children born to unmarried parents were considered illegitimate.
Joanne was from Abbeydorney in Kerry, about 80km from where Baby John was found.
She was admitted to hospital on the same day Baby John was discovered — and she was found to have given birth to a baby.
Detectives were suspicious of her because there was no sign of the baby who she had with a married man called Jeremiah Locke. She also had a daughter with Jeremiah called Yvonne.
And they thought the case was solved when Hayes signed a statement admitting to having given birth to Baby John before killing him. Her family also admitted throwing his remains in the sea.
She was charged with murder while four of her loved ones were charged in connection to the death.
However, they later retracted the confessions, and claimed they had been coerced.
It then emerged that Joanne had given birth to a baby who is believed to either have been stillborn or who died shortly after birth from natural causes. This happened to be in the same week as Baby John.
Joanne called her son Shane and buried him on the family farm.
Tests eventually revealed Shane’s blood type was O, just like his parents Joanne and Jeremiah. Baby John meanwhile had blood type A.
Incredibly, despite presuming this would rule her out of the Baby John investigation, gardai (Irish police) argued that she may have given birth to twins who had two different fathers, a rare phenomenon called superfecundation.
It was put forward that Joanne could have buried baby Shane after his death before brutally killing Baby John and throwing him out to sea.
However, unsurprisingly, the case collapsed, and charges were dropped.
But Joanne then had to take part in the Kerry babies tribunal where she was publicly questioned about her private sex life. The enquiry, which was hugely criticised, was set up to examine police behaviour.
At one point, Joanne had to run from the witness stand and find a toilet so she could be physically sick.
DNA tests found in 2018, some 34 years after Baby John was washed up, that Joanne could not have given birth to him.
Former Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Leo Varadkar made an apology to Joanne and her family. The bungled investigation also led to them being awarded €2.5million (£2.1m) in compensation.
Then Justice Minister Simon Harris called it a “defining moment in social history” and said the treatment of Joanne was “despicable and unacceptable”.
Joanne released a book called My Story in 1985 but she has stayed out of the public eye.
In 2023, two people, a man in his 60s and a woman in her 50s, were arrested in relation to the Kerry Babies case, before being released without charge.
However, the mystery surrounding Baby John remains unsolved, and the parents and killer are still unidentified.
Speaking two years ago, Superintendent Flor Murphy said: “I am again appealing to the public for any information in relation to the death of Baby John in 1984. Anyone who comes forward will be treated with sensitivity and compassion.”
The haunting case was explored in a Channel 4 documentary called Murdered: Baby on the Beach.
