A decades-old cold case of abandoned infant remains has been solved using DNA evidence. Now a North Carolina couple is charged with a felony

By Rebekah Riess

Three decades after infant remains were found in a North Carolina beach town, police say they have arrested and charged a couple based on new DNA evidence.

Scott Gordon Poole, 54, and his wife Robin Lynn Byrum, 51, were arrested last week and charged with concealing the birth of a child, a Class I felony, the Nags Head Police Department said in a news release.

As of Tuesday evening, it was unclear whether Poole or Byrum had obtained legal representation.

The case dates back to April 4, 1991, when police officers found the infant remains in the trash at a location in Nags Head. At the time, authorities were not able to identify the baby’s gender because decomposition had already begun, police said.

Investigators connected the couple to the infant after they sent one of its rib bones to a Texas lab for forensic analysis in 2019 and human DNA was recovered, officials said. That evidence was then used to create genealogical profile, leading investigators to Poole and Byrum.

“The tragedy of this child’s death and the manner in which his body was disposed of is compounded by the fact that, until now, no one has been found responsible for this incredibly heartbreaking act,” Nags Head Police Chief Phil Webster said.

“But, through the hard work of Nags Head Police investigators and our law enforcement partners in the case, those who did this will be held accountable for a death that has remained unsolved for three decades.”

The couple is being held at the Dare County Detention Center in Manteo, police said. Their bond was set at $250,000 each.

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