The teenage mother who left baby Mary to die in a New Jersey park on Christmas Eve 1984 was leading a normal suburban life with a husband and children when she was tracked down and arrested

• Catherine Crumlich, 57, was just 17 when she left her newborn baby behind
• She pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to 364 days in prison
• Before her arrest, Crumlich lived the life of a loving mother to her two sons

The teenage mother who abandoned baby Mary in a New Jersey park on Christmas Eve 1984 was living a normal life in South Carolina with her husband and sons before police caught up with her last year.

Catherine Crumlich, now 57, was just 17 when she left the one-day-old baby with the umbilical cord still intact at a creek in Mendham, Morris County.

The death was ruled a homicide after the coroner found the baby was still alive when Crumlich wrapped him in a towel and put him in a plastic bag.

The little girl was baptized by a local priest, Reverend Michael Drury of St. Joseph Church, who called her “Maria,” and the case made national headlines.

The case was uninteresting for 40 years. Then, last September, prosecutors made the bombshell announcement that they had tracked down Mary's parents using the DNA of the then-19-year-old father.

He had died, but Crumlich's mother was alive and living with her family.

Crumlich was convicted of juvenile delinquency last week and sentenced to one year in prison.

Her Facebook captures the life she led under the name Catherine Snyder-Crumlich after she moved and settled with her new family in a suburb of Columbia, South Carolina.

Photos show her happily posing with her husband David and sons Zachary and Noah.

Crumlich was the picture of a loving mother, attending her sons' high school baseball games and weddings and later babysitting her grandchildren.

She took a job at a specialty grocery store called The Crescent Olive, where she was pictured grinning with colleagues at Christmas time in 2018.

But her good life came to an end when she was sentenced to a year in prison last week after pleading guilty to manslaughter.

This came a year after the Morris County Prosecutor's Office filed a juvenile delinquency charge that led to her arrest in South Carolina.

Investigators used modern DNA analysis to track down Baby Mary's parents, but her father, who was 19 at the time of her birth, died in 2009 before he could be identified.

According to prosecutors, there is no evidence that the man was aware of his daughter's birth or death.

Crumlich pleaded guilty on February 28. The Morris County Prosecutor's Office said the manslaughter charge would have been considered a second-degree felony if committed by an adult.

On April 3, Judge Michael Wright sentenced Crumlich to 364 days in the Morris County Correctional Facility, followed by two years of probation.

The verdict marked the end of a process that had been dormant for decades.

It happened 40 years after baby Mary was discovered by two boys on Christmas Eve morning. The coroner determined she was less than 24 hours old at the time of her death.

In her mother's absence, the community made sure baby Mary was cared for.

She was buried in the church cemetery and given a tombstone inscribed with a Bible quote: “I will never forget you, I have carved you in the palm of my hand.”

Father Drury continued to hold a graveside service for the child every Christmas Eve.

In a news release, Morris County Prosecutor Robert Carroll praised the tireless work of police and investigators that led to the identification of the little girl's parents.

“Over the past nearly four decades, investigators have vigorously pursued every lead to identify Baby Mary and learn more about the circumstances that led to her discovery in the woods,” he wrote.

“This settlement has been years in the making, across generations of law enforcement who have demonstrated a tireless commitment to justice for Baby Mary.”

Speaking to the Bergen Record, Mendham Township Police Chief Ross Johnson said he was relieved the mystery had finally come to an end.

“I am proud that we can finally bring justice to a little girl who was needlessly abandoned in the woods on a cold winter night,” Johnson said.