Virginia woman nabbed in 1996 drowning of her newborn at Commack movie theater

DNA from the infant’s blood — saved for three decades — led Cold Case Task Force detectives to the baby’s mother, DA says

Michelle Chronick Tyson was at the theater with her family to see “Space Jam,” DA says

The mother who delivered a baby in a Commack movie theater bathroom stall 30 years ago and left the newborn facedown in the toilet to die has been charged with murder, prosecutors said.

A Suffolk grand jury indicted Michelle Chronick Tyson, 59, of Virginia, on two counts of second-degree murder in the November 1996 death of her infant son, Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond Tierney announced. DNA from the baby’s blood, kept in evidence for decades, led investigators to her, Tierney said.

Arrested Wednesday in Hampton, Virginia, Tyson pleaded not guilty at her arraignment on Thursday in Riverhead. She was 29 at the time of the baby’s death and was with family to see “Space Jam” the night she gave birth in a bathroom sat the multiplex, according to the prosecutor on the case.

Following her arraignment, Tierney said Tyson “made a choice back in 1996 to take her newborn child’s life before he ever had the chance to experience the world beyond his first few breaths.”

He stressed that the length of time that has passed does not diminish the gravity of her alleged heinous act.

Prosecutors said workers at the Commack Multiplex, which was located at 100 Express Drive North and closed in 2011, found the infant in a toilet in the women’s restroom about 12:30 a.m. on Nov. 18, 1996. They phoned police right away.

An autopsy that day determined the tiny boy was born alive and full term, Tierney said. The Suffolk County Medical Examiner’s Office ruled his death a homicide, caused by asphyxia with submersion in water.

The Suffolk County Crime Laboratory kept a sample of the baby’s blood as evidence and investigators called him “Baby Boy Doe.”

In 2024, the Cold Case Task Force — a joint unit of Suffolk Police and the DA’s office — sent the sample to a private lab, where scientists produced a single nucleotide polymorphism, or SNP, DNA profile, which is a more detailed type of genetic profile.

Investigators then identified Tyson as the baby’s likely mother, prosecutors said. On Aug. 26, they executed a search warrant for a cheek swab from her. DNA testing confirmed she was the boy’s biological mother, Tierney said.

Acting Supreme Court Justice Steven Pilewski ordered Tyson held without bail. Her attorney, Christopher Gioe of Hauppauge, has not yet replied to requests for comment from Greater Long Island.

Gioe’s client faces 25 years to life in prison if convicted. She is scheduled to be back in court on Nov. 20.

Tyson crafted an eight-page bail letter to the judge, Newsday reported.

“I didn’t know if it was a boy or girl. … I just remembered it being born and I cleaned myself up and didn’t look back at anything,” Tyson said in the letter. “I put the toilet paper on top of the baby. I couldn’t bring that home. There was nothing I could do about it. I just walked away.”

Suffolk Assistant District Attorney Dana Castaldo said in court, Newsday reported, that Tyson was at the multiplex with her son, the boy’s friend and other family members to see “Space Jam.”

Tyson hid the pregnancy from her family, including her husband, who was not the father of the baby, Castaldo said.

Newsday additionally reported that Tyson, who lived in Brentwood in 1996, has been convicted of other crimes and spent a total of eight months behind bars in Virginia. She was convicted of grand larceny in 2015, forgery in 2016 and twice for obtaining money under false pretenses in 2016 and 2017.

Long Islanders reacted strongly to the announcement of Tyson’s arrest and indictment on murder charges.

“What is done in the dark will eventually find its way into the light,” Donna Renea, a Massapequa mother, posted in the Facebook comments section of a Newsday post about the case. “Truth has a way of revealing itself without anyone having to expose it.”

“I always imagined it was a teen mom who did this and it turns out she was almost 30 at the time,” commented Michelle Lee Ciccarello of Hauppauge. “How was she able to live with herself?”

Tierney’s office used the announcement to also highlight New York’s Abandoned Infant Protection Act, known as the Safe Haven law. It lets a parent legally and confidentially surrender a baby up to 30 days old at a designated safe haven, such as a hospital or a staffed police or fire station.

Click here for Greater Long Island newsletters.

_{Top: provided by SCDA}