PLAIN CITY, Ohio — A Greene County woman has pleaded guilty in the case involving an infant whose remains were discovered inside a garbage truck in Plain City more than three years ago.
WBNS-10TV reported the guilty plea Sunday in the long-running case of the child known throughout the community as “Madison Baby Doe.”
Anuradha Manukonda had been charged with one count of gross abuse of a corpse, a fifth-degree felony. She originally entered a not-guilty plea after being formally charged in Madison County Common Pleas Court in April 2025.
The investigation began June 15, 2023, when a sanitation worker discovered the newborn girl’s remains in the rear of a garbage truck collecting refuse in Plain City.
Investigators could not immediately identify the child or determine where she came from. The community subsequently named her Madison Baby Doe and organized a funeral and burial attended by residents and members of law enforcement.
The infant’s cause of death was officially classified as undetermined. Authorities said the condition of the remains, injuries caused during trash collection and the delay before the discovery prevented medical examiners from determining precisely how she died.
Police have said investigators did not obtain evidence proving the child’s death was a homicide or conclusively establishing whether she was born alive.
The case remained unresolved for nearly two years while Plain City police and the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation worked to identify the infant’s mother.
According to reporting by The Columbus Dispatch, investigators collected discarded items—including a cotton swab and a beer bottle—from trash in the neighborhood where the infant was found. DNA recovered during that investigation eventually led authorities to Manukonda.
Police said DNA testing confirmed Manukonda was the child’s mother. Investigators alleged that she gave birth while staying with a relative at a home on Bluestem Lane and later placed the infant’s remains in an outdoor trash container.
Manukonda was 24 when the child was born and 26 when authorities announced the charge. Police said members of the household did not know she had been pregnant.
The announcement of an arrest in 2025 marked the fulfillment of a promise Plain City Police Chief Dale McKee made after the infant’s discovery: that the child would receive a proper burial and investigators would continue working to identify her mother.
WHIO-TV’s earlier coverage documented Manukonda’s original plea and the community’s efforts to remember the infant.
The latest report confirms the case has now resulted in a guilty plea. Sentencing information was not immediately included in the initial report.
