For nearly 30 years, the case of a newborn found lifeless near a theme park remained a mystery—until modern DNA technology finally led police to a woman living a seemingly ordinary life.
Joanne Sharkey, now 55, was at home in her pink pajamas when officers arrived at her door with a shocking revelation: she was being arrested for the death of her baby son, Callum.
In bodycam footage released by authorities, Sharkey appears unfazed as an officer reads her rights.
He acknowledges that she may feel shocked and distressed but assures her that he is “not here to judge.”
However, Sharkey, showing little emotion, cuts in to point at her husband, Neil, in another room and calmly states, “Can I just say, he doesn’t know anything about this?”
Neil was initially taken into custody alongside his wife but was later released without charge.
Despite the arrest, the couple—married for over three decades and parents to an older son—remains together.
The Tragic Discovery of Baby Callum
The heartbreaking case dates back to March 14, 1998, when a man walking with his young son and dog made a gruesome discovery near Gulliver’s World theme park in Warrington.
Inside two knotted bin bags, he found the body of a full-term baby boy, later named Callum by investigators.
The infant, weighing eight pounds, had wads of tissue stuffed into his mouth and throat.
The police immediately launched Operation Wistful, an extensive murder investigation that involved door-to-door inquiries, DNA testing of local residents, and appeals to medical professionals.
Despite their efforts, no parents were identified, leaving the case unsolved for decades.
The local community, deeply moved by the tragedy, donated money for Callum’s funeral and headstone, with around 150 mourners attending his service.
A Breakthrough With Advanced DNA Technology
In January 2022, police revisited the case with new forensic techniques unavailable in the 1990s.
A partial DNA match from a national database pointed investigators toward an unnamed relative of Callum.
Through advanced “familial” DNA tracking, they eventually confirmed that Joanne Sharkey and her husband were the child’s biological parents.
Once confronted with the evidence, Sharkey pleaded guilty to manslaughter due to diminished responsibility and to concealing Callum’s birth.
Prosecutors initially charged her with murder, but after reviewing reports from psychiatric experts, the court acknowledged that she had been suffering from severe postnatal depression at the time of the baby’s death.
The Road to Justice
Sharkey was due to stand trial for murder but, given the psychiatric findings, the prosecution accepted her guilty plea to the lesser charge.
The court heard that in March 1998, she gave birth at home in Liverpool, drove 15 miles to Warrington, and abandoned her newborn’s body in the wooded area.
Now, after nearly three decades, justice is finally being served.
Sharkey, visibly emotional in court, is set to receive her sentence later this month.
As the case nears its final chapter, the haunting question remains: Could this tragedy have been prevented if she had received the support she needed back then?