She would have been 18 today.
But the little girl known only as Baby Blue died shortly after her birth in 2004. An autopsy found she'd been asphyxiated moments after her birth and discarded.
Bill Ferrier was walking along the beach in Ventnor on Jan. 17, 2004, when he came across a yellow laundry bag in the water off Suffolk Avenue. It was there he found the baby, with the placenta and umbilical cord still attached.
He and his wife, Susan, still haven't gotten the answers they sought all those years ago as to who killed the baby he named Blue.
The two did give her a proper burial and were able to have a ceremony in her honor a year later, with about 60 people from the community who had been touched by the story of the baby they never knew.
Virginia Godleski, a Somers Point resident, sang a song that she wrote in Baby Blue's honor. The Rev. Ron Bretherick, of St. John's by the Sea, officiated the non-denominational service.
The Ferriers started the nonprofit Baby Blue Foundation that helped raise awareness of options like Safe Haven, which allows a baby to be left at a safe place with no criminal repercussions.
The foundation no longer exists, but it did critical work in its eight years, Susan Ferrier says.
But she and her husband still don't have their answers as to what happened to the baby girl.
"Answers wouldn't give back to Blue her first birthday party, the curiosity of childhood, the joy of having her training wheels removed, the butterflies of her first crush, the excitement and nervousness of opening her college acceptance letters, or any of the other milestones of those first 18 years," Ferrier said. "However, answers might help us better understand why such a tragedy occurred and what can be done to prevent more unnecessary newborn deaths."
In 2019, then-Atlantic County Prosecutor Damon Tyner said he believed the case was "solvable for a variety of reasons."
"We are optimistic that we will find the persons responsible for such a callous, irresponsible act towards a newborn child," he said at the time.
Nothing has been made public since.
A plaque that honored the girl hung in the lifeguard station at Suffolk Avenue. The plaque was taken down before the demolition of that station and will be rehung in the new station, BreakingAC has found out.
For now, the Ferriers at least hope those who came together for the baby girl they never knew will remember her today.
"We ask that the community that embraced Blue 18 years ago take a moment today to remember her on her birthday," Ferrier wrote in a Facebook post.
Anyone with information can call the Atlantic County Prosecutor's Office at 609-909-7800, or go to the Prosecutor's Office website and provide information by filling out the form anonymously on the Submit a Tip page. People can also call Crime Stoppers at 609-652-1234.
