Police have arrested the mother in a 1990 homicide involving an abandoned newborn.

Genetic genealogy testing identified Brook Graham, of Greenville, as the baby's mother.

The infant was found Feb. 13, 1990, by a man picking wildflowers. Police named her "Julie Valentine."

Greenville's Julie Valentine Center was named after the girl as part of its re-branding in 2011.

A lifeless 6-pound newborn girl, wrapped in newspaper and abandoned in a cardboard box found in a field on a cold February day, left Greenville investigators grasping for answers for nearly three decades.

On Thursday, Police Chief Ken Miller announced a breakthrough in the case of the child known as "Julie Valentine." Miller said investigators charged the girl's mother, 53-year-old Brook Graham, in the baby's death.

The infant, wrapped in a copy of the Wall Street Journal and floral bedding, was found inside a cardboard Sears vacuum cleaner box on Feb. 13, 1990. A man who was picking Valentine's Day flowers for his wife found the infant deceased in a field off of Verdae Boulevard, said retired Capt. Terry Christy, who led the investigation in the 1990s.

Police estimate she was born on Feb. 10 and abandoned immediately after birth. Police said the mother drove the baby to an overgrown area beside a field where a couch and other debris were discarded. The site near Verdae Boulevard was within a mile of the mother's home on Halton Road, Miller said.

An autopsy determined the baby was breathing outside of the womb before she died.

Through the years, the baby has become a symbol for child-abuse prevention, and a Greenville center that serves child-abuse survivors was given the name that investigators had given the baby, Julie Valentine. Police officers at the time raised money to install a plaque in her honor at Woodlawn Memorial Park. A heart-shaped sculpture in Cleveland Park also honors her memory.

Graham, of Hampden Drive in Greenville, is charged with homicide by child abuse in the case because investigators determined the child had survived outside the womb, at least for a short time, Miller said. She is being held at the Greenville County Detention Center without bond.

The baby wasn't born in a hospital and appeared to have been born in a home, Miller said.

Investigators have said the placenta, sheets, towels and everything that appeared to have been used during the delivery was found inside the box alongside the baby's body. The baby was full term and did not appear to have any abnormalities, Miller said.

DNA: The 'missing link'

Detectives used DNA and genealogy tracing to track down and interview the child's father, who led detectives to the infant's mother, Miller said. The father has not been charged. The investigation is ongoing.

Graham and her then-boyfriend had been on police officers' radar from the case's inception, but evidence wasn't strong enough to make an arrest.

An arrest warrant states that a review of past purchases showed that Graham and her boyfriend bought the same vacuum tied to the box that held the baby. The couple could not produce the box from the purchase when asked about the vacuum at the time, the warrant states.

DNA testing later linked the boyfriend as being the biological father of the baby and interviews showed there were no other men involved with Graham who could have impregnated her at the time, the warrant states.

"They went to Sears and they pulled the department store’s vacuum order history and that’s what led them to initially reach out to Brook Graham and her then-boyfriend,” said Police Department spokesman Donnie Porter said. “They were on their radar from back then. They were able to establish that connection but genealogy was the important missing link.”

Lt. Jason Rampey said investigators learned that Graham has other grown children now and the details of those children's lives were a part of their investigation.

"There was conduct toward the other children that we have questions about," Rampey said, adding that he had to be vague to protect the integrity of the case.

The infant was named Julie Valentine by detectives who wanted to give a name to an infant who had no name and had no one to care for her, according to Chief Miller.

In 2011, The Julie Valentine Center, a Greenville nonprofit offering free and confidential services to victims of sexual and child abuse, was renamed in honor of the infant.

Representatives from The Julie Valentine Center were present for the announcement made by Greenville police on Thursday morning.

Honoring a legacy

The infant's death has been painful to reflect on, said Shauna Galloway-Williams, executive director of the Julie Valentine Center. Julie Valentine never danced, laughed or went down a slide at a playground, Galloway-Williams said.

"This is the complicated nature of child abuse," she said.

Though an arrest has been made, questions remain.

"We still have so many unanswered questions," Galloway-Williams said. "We all ask, 'Why?' as if an answer would make us feel any better."

When Galloway-Williams came to the center in 2010, the staff knew that they were due for a re-branding. The former name, Greenville Rape Crisis and Child Abuse Center, just didn't seem to fit and wasn't as welcoming to victims or families seeking help, she said.

The decision was made in 2011 to rename the center after the abandoned baby. Law enforcement called the baby Julie, after detective Christy's wife, Julianna. Valentine was chosen since the baby was found a day before Valentine's Day.

"We knew it was the right thing to do," Galloway-Williams said. "The very first day that we re-opened and had clients walk through the door, they told us how much easier it was to walk through the door of a building that said Julie Valentine Center rather than Greenville Rape Crisis and Child Abuse Center. It keeps her name alive. It keeps her legacy alive in the community."

Galloway-Williams said Thursday's announcement, while bringing up longstanding grief, also sends a message to others dealing with child-abuse cases to always have hope.

She also wore a bracelet to the announcement with the same heart design that’s found at the memorial sculpture in Cleveland Park.

Every time someone reports a case of child abuse, Julie Valentine's memory is honored, she said.

"What are we willing to do to ensure there is never another Julie Valentine in our community?" Galloway-Williams said.

'Always had hope'

Christy, the former detective, has been retired from law enforcement for 10 years but never stopped thinking about Julie Valentine.

He worked for the Greenville Police Department for 32 years before getting a job as a cold case investigator at the Greenville County Sheriff's Office for five years.

"It takes more out of you to see a child being violated or neglected like that," he said. "We always had hope."

With Graham in custody, the community can begin to heal, but healing has already come through ongoing remembrance of the child, Christy said.

"The justice for Julie is all these years. The love that people have had for her is her justice," he said.

Christy remembered a cold and dreary day when the baby was discovered. He said every detective in the department descended on the area. They tried to track down subscribers to the Wall Street Journal newspaper, which was left in the box with the child. They looked into the Sears vacuum box and also a red car that was spotted leaving the scene several days earlier. Few pieces of evidence were concrete.

"Year after year we were hoping someone would finally get a heart and make a phone call to us," he said. "Then, of course, the DNA came around and the technology."

Miller said the department used the services of Parabon NanoLabs, which uses genetic genealogy to match DNA to family members. The first time the department used the service was to solve the homicide of Genevieve "Jenny" Zitricki, who was also killed in 1990.

In that case, the department announced in October 2018 that Robert Eugene Brashers, now deceased, was identified as Zitricki's killer. Police sent the Julie Valentine case to Parabon NanoLabs in that same month.

The Greenville Police Department still has 16 open homicide cases.

STAY ON TOP OF THE NEWS

Our local journalists bring you news as it happens. Please consider becoming a subscriber. Here's how.

More:Who was 'Julie Valentine'? The name tied to the Greenville cold case that baffled police

More:Arrest made in Julie Valentine cold case: What we know

More:Julie Valentine cold case: Who is Brook Graham, new suspect in 1990 infant death investigation?

Background: How investigators held out hope in Julie Valentine case