SALISBURY — Deputies with the Rowan County Sheriff’s Office are seeking help in an unsolved 1971 killing of a newborn baby.

Deputies recently discovered the old case file detailing the murder, which happened in March of 1971, according to a release from the sheriff’s office. At that time, deputies were called to Dunns Mountain Road near White Rock Avenue where the body of a deceased infant was discovered. An autopsy ruled that the death was a homicide before the body was dumped. No arrests were made in the case.

According to a story in the March 23, 1971, edition of the Salisbury Evening Post, the infant was found in a garbage dump near the entrance to the Old Granite Quarry. It was found by a man looking for bottles in the dump after he noticed two feet in a trash pile. Officers quoted in the story said that the child was born alive and then murdered.

The sheriff at the time, Sheriff John Stirewalt, described the case as being one of the most troublesome cases he was ever faced with, according to the release.

“Register of Deeds John Brindle, he helped me out with finding the death certificate, and the name is “unknown baby girl found in trash pile.” That, that just doesn’t sit well with me,” said Lt. Ryan Barkley, who discovered and reopened the old case file.

Barkley said that deputies are hopeful because the area the infant was found in was a very tight-knit community around that time, so he believes that someone knew something. One issue that deputies are facing is that the man who found the baby is only identified in the file as Mr. A.J. Trexler. Barkley said that he hopes either Trexler himself or a member of his family will step forward to help him understand the case.

The death certificate says that the body was cremated by the state a year after being found, which was a common practice for unidentified bodies during that time. However, the state medical examiner’s office had kept a few strands of hair that can be sent for DNA testing to identify potential family members. The sheriff’s office has already sent the hair to a private lab for testing and Barkley said that results should be available in about a month.

“If anybody ever registered a family member through any type of genealogy site, ancestry.com or those type things, we’re going to be able to pinpoint it pretty closely with DNA. Especially the quality DNA that we feel that we have,” said Allen.

Allen also said that he hopes that reopening a case such as this will remind victim’s families that even if their case remains unsolved currently, that deputies have not forgotten about them.

“This is not an initiative that came from me. This is our criminal investigative division, Lt. Barkley and his crew, that are out looking at these old cases and not forgetting about those. I think it’s important for families to understand in Rowan County. I investigated a cold case from the 1900’s, and the family was honored that we still hadn’t forgotten about them. That’s exactly the message from Lt. Barkley and CID that even if you were a victim of a crime from 52 years ago, we haven’t forgotten,” said Allen.

Anyone with information about the murder is asked to contact Lt. Ryan Barkley at 704-216-8711.