NC couple charged after infant found in Outer Banks trash can 30 years ago

NAGS HEAD, N.C. (WTVD) -- After more than 30 years of searching, investigators have arrested two suspects accused of throwing a baby into a trash can in 1991.

On April 4, 1991, Nags Head Police Officers went to investigate a report of human remains in a trash can and found the infant's body. According to a statement on the department's Facebook page, officers worked over the years to try to find who was responsible with no luck.

In 2019, investigators sent the baby's rib bone to a private lab in Texas for more analysis. The lab recovered DNA from the bone and used that information to find a family in Alexander County, North Carolina.

On October 21 of this year, 54 year-old Scott Poole and his wife, 51-year-old Robin Byrum, were arrested and charged with concealing the birth of a child. More charges may be filed pending further investigation.

"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," said Nags Head police chief Phil Webster in a written statement. "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."

Poole and Byrum are both in jail on a $250,000 bond each.