Alisha Ann Heinrich (Delta Dawn): 1982 River Doe

On the chilly morning of Sunday, December 5, 1982, a commercial truck driver crossing the Interstate 10 bridge over the Escatawpa River in Moss Point, Jackson County, Mississippi, looked down into the marsh grass and spotted a tiny body floating in the water. For thirty-eight years, the toddler was mourned across the Gulf Coast as "Delta Dawn."

Discovery, Autopsy & Highway Sightings

The victim was an 18-month-old female toddler with blond strawberry hair and brown eyes, measuring 2 feet 6 inches tall and weighing 25 pounds. She was dressed in a pink-and-white checked dress with an embroidered flower on the chest, a disposable diaper, and white socks. An autopsy confirmed that water was present in her lungs, proving she was alive when she entered the river and had drowned.

Two nights earlier, on December 3, 1982, multiple motorists on Interstate 10 reported seeing a distressed young woman in her early twenties carrying an infant in her arms, walking in a daze along the shoulder near the Escatawpa bridge in pouring rain. Later that night, a motorist saw a female body lying in the river current, but marine search-and-rescue teams were unable to locate an adult decedent.

Chronological Case Timeline