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California Mother Gets 13 Years for 1994 Newborn’s Death After Cold-Case DNA Break

The original probe produced no missing-person report or confirmed cause of death.

Overview

  • Pamela Ferreyra, 61, was sentenced on Feb. 18 to 13 years and four months in state prison.
  • She pleaded guilty in December 2025 to voluntary manslaughter and felony child abuse, admitting great bodily injury to the infant.
  • Investigators say she hid her pregnancy, delivered at home, then left the newborn in a remote Prunedale location and never returned.
  • The baby’s partial remains were found in a grocery bag on Dec. 3, 1994; an autopsy showed he was born alive and unfed for about 24 hours, with no definitive cause of death.
  • A county Cold Case Task Force launched in 2020 used DNA testing to identify Ferreyra in 2024; the case is the unit’s tenth cold-case murder conviction, and the offenses count as strikes under California law.