PORTLAND, Ore. — The father of an infant girl found dead at a Portland recycling center in 2013 has been sentenced in a decade-long cold case. The baby, known previously known only as "Baby Precious," was identified as Amara in 2021.
According to court documents, 53-year-old Alnath Omar Oliver of Portland pleaded guilty to criminally negligent homicide on Friday. His sentence is four years in prison.
According to the Portland Police Bureau (PPB), the case was presented to a grand jury by the Multnomah County District Attorney’s office. On Sep. 18, Oliver was indicted on charges of two counts of second-degree manslaughter, two counts of first-degree criminal mistreatment, third-degree rape and concealing the birth of an infant. Oliver had been arrested in 2023 by the United States Marshals Service.
On May 28, 2013, Amara's body was discovered at a recycling center in Swan Island, and the county medical examiner determined that the newborn baby girl's death was a homicide.
Despite widespread community concern and outreach by both PPB and Crimestoppers of Oregon, police said that "Baby Precious" remained unidentified, and the case went cold until a few years later, when the case was transferred over to PPB's cold case unit in 2019, with Detective Brandan McGuire taking lead on the case.
PPB said that McGuire sent DNA samples to Bode Technology, a private forensics lab that has helped the agency with forensic genealogy in the past. While it did not immediately produce any leads, McGuire learned in December 2021 that an anonymous family connection had been found.
In a press briefing, Detective McGuire said that Amara's mother had been 15 years old at the time of the child's birth, while Oliver was in his 40s. Oliver allegedly prevented the mother from seeking any sort of health care during her pregnancy, and she gave birth on the floor of Oliver's apartment. She believed that Oliver had taken the baby to the hospital after that.
Oliver told investigators that baby Amara died while he was walking to the hospital, McGuire said, and he's believed to have placed her body in a recycling container.
