VCU to screen true-crime documentary ‘Baby Doe’ with filmmaker

By Haley Tenore

As documentaries, podcasts and other platforms increasingly take audiences deep inside fascinating crimes and mysteries, an audience at Virginia Commonwealth University can explore one this week through a forensic lens - and hear from the filmmaker who delved into the case.

On Wednesday, Sept. 16, at 6 p.m. in the Commons theater, the Department of Forensic Science and the College of Humanities and Sciences will host a screening of "Baby Doe," a true-crime documentary by director Jessica Earnshaw. She then will join a panel with VCU professors to discuss ethics in forensic technology and how culture can affect maternal health outcomes. Attendees can register through this online form.

Earnshaw is a photojournalist and filmmaker whose work has been featured in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and National Geographic. Her first documentary, the 2020 film "Jacinta," focused on women facing the cycle of addiction and incarceration.

"Baby Doe" debuted at the 2025 SXSW Film Festival, and it focuses on Gail Ritchey, a mother and grandmother in a rural, conservative community in Ohio. In 1993, a dead newborn was found in a wooded area. Investigators initially could not solve the case, but 26 years later, in 2019, DNA evidence connected Ritchey to the baby's death.

At trial, Ritchey, who was 22 when she gave birth in a toilet, said she did not know she was pregnant and that she believed the baby was stillborn. Ritchey had no criminal history, and Earnshaw described her as an active member of her community. The film follows Ritchey's family as she faces trial, backlash and the possibility of life in prison.

"There are 29 countries around the world that see infanticide-type crimes as a mental health issue," Earnshaw said. "In the States, we are very apt to criminalize these cases and throw someone away forever."

After the screening at VCU, Earnshaw will speak with a panel that includes faculty members Catherine Connon and Amanda Hale. Connon, Ph.D., is a forensic genetic genealogist, and Hale, Ph.D., is a forensic anthropologist who previously worked for the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency. The panel will address ethics surrounding the case and field questions from viewers.

"It's helpful for students to know that even if we can't solve the case now, maybe over time, if we develop new leads through better technology, we would be able to solve the case in the future," Connon said.

Hale added that "there is a human element to what we do and how our work is used in the criminal justice system, and what our responsibility is to adhere to the standards and limitations of the methods that we use. As we close more cold cases with advancing technology, this is something that is going to continue to come up."