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Jennifer Katalinich Sentenced In 1996 Death Of 'Baby Faith'

FORT COLLINS, Colo. (AP/CBS4) - A judge has sentenced Jennifer Katalinich to 90 days in prison, three years in a community corrections program and eight years of probation in the death of an unidentified newborn girl whose body was found in a garbage bag in Horsetooth Reservoir in 1996. The child in the cold case became known as "Baby Faith."

Jennifer Katalinich MUG
Jennifer Katalinich (credit: Larimer County)

The Coloradoan reported that the 43-year-old woman was sentenced Thursday after she pleaded guilty to felony charges of criminally negligent homicide resulting in negligent death of an at-risk juvenile and tampering with physical evidence.

baby faith cold case (3)
(credit: CBS)

Katalinich was arrested in November 2019 in connection with the case of a newborn found dead in the Horsetooth Reservoir west of Fort Collins on Aug. 24, 1996.

CBS4 reported back in 1996 that two boys found the child in a bag tangled in a tree stump in Horsetooth Reservoir. The coroner said the child was born alive and died of asphyxiation.

RELATED: DNA Helps Solve 'Baby Faith' Colorado Cold Case

Dozens of strangers held a memorial service for "Baby Faith." The pastor told CBS4 after news of the arrest came he "just couldn't believe it."

Then-Sheriff Richard Shockley said at the time: "There has been a young lady, or woman who was pregnant, who suddenly is not and doesn't have a child, and we (hope to) talk to and see what happened." He died in 2011 and never saw the crime solved.

(© Copyright 2020 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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