Mother receives probation for 2017 infant death in Markham

Melody Townsend received a two-year probation sentence on Wednesday.

The mother is responsible for the 2017 death of her one-year-old daughter, Ana Marie Townsend. Court records show the sentence began on October 28 and will conclude on the same date in 2028.

Townsend was charged with concealing a homicidal death and endangering a child in circumstances involving death. She was arrested in California and brought back to Illinois to face the charges. This resolution came more than three years after her initial arrest.

The court imposed several conditions on the probation. These include DNA indexing, a mental health evaluation and treatment, and participation in a domestic violence program.

Ana Marie was discovered on a July morning in 2017 inside a burning home on the 15400 block of Hamlin Avenue in Markham. Firefighters found the child in a vacant house. Her charred remains were wrapped in a pink blanket with elephants and placed inside a garbage bag hidden in the attic rafters. She was wearing a onesie at the time.

An autopsy confirmed that the baby died before the fire started. Investigators struggled to identify the child because no parents came forward after the blaze. The victim had no known name, address, or parents during the initial search.

Andrew Holmes, a crisis responder, helped identify the child by knocking on doors in the neighborhood. He showed residents a composite image provided by the medical examiner. A gas station owner eventually provided a tip about the grandparents, which revealed the child's name. Holmes also learned that Townsend and the child's father disappeared three weeks after the fire. Police looked into other possible suspects in 2020, but the killer of the child has not been identified as of 2026.