Stephanie Amos, 52, of Pine Bluff was booked into the Jefferson Jail on September 14, 2026, on a capital murder warrant, according to the Jefferson County booking record.

The warrant traces back to June 22, 1992, when a deceased newborn was found in the 1000 block of South Mulberry Street in Pine Bluff. The Arkansas State Crime Laboratory determined the cause of death was craniocerebral trauma and the case was classified as a homicide at the time, according to Arkansas State Police and Pine Bluff Police Department accounts of the case.

The case went unsolved for more than three decades. In October 2025, the Pine Bluff Police Department asked the Arkansas State Police Criminal Investigation Division to reexamine it. Investigators say DNA evidence recovered in the case was entered into CODIS, the national Combined DNA Index System, and returned an investigative lead pointing to Amos. Additional DNA testing is reported to have confirmed she is the infant's biological mother.

According to police, Amos was interviewed on November 6, 2025, and acknowledged that the infant was hers and that she had disposed of the baby's body. That account comes from law enforcement's description of the interview, not from a court record, and has not been tested in court.

Arkansas defines capital murder under Arkansas Code Annotated § 5-10-101 to cover a number of distinct circumstances, including killings committed in the course of certain other felonies, premeditated killings, and -- as relevant to a case involving a newborn -- knowingly causing the death of a child fourteen years of age or younger under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to the value of human life, when the defendant is eighteen or older. Capital murder is a Class Y felony; a conviction can carry life imprisonment without parole or the death penalty. The booking record and available reporting do not specify which subsection of the statute the state is proceeding under.

Amos has been charged, not convicted, and is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in court. No case number, docket, or disposition was available in the reviewed booking record.