Crime & Safety

New Mexico Autopsy Report IDs Infant Remains as Jackson Farrey

But the report draws no conclusions about the cause of death of the 5-month-old son of a former St. Charles couple.

The remains of an infant found in the New Mexico desert near El Paso, Texas, finally have been identified officially as the son of a former St. Charles couple who remain in jail in connection with the death, El Paso TV station KFOX 14 reports.


The autopsy report, released Jan. 15, 2014 by Office of the Medical Investigator at the University of New Mexico, identified the infant at 5-month-old Jackson Farrey, the son of Jeffrey and Jenna Farrey, 22 and 20, respectively, of El Paso and formerly of St. Charles.


Jackson’s remains were found wearing a soiled diaper and wrapped in a blanket in a shallow grave in the desert near Oro Grande, N.M., KFOX 14 reports. The report, however, draws no conclusions about what killed Jackson, whose body was “severely decomposed with mummification and partial skeletonization of the skull.”

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There was no evidence of poisoning or injuries, however, according to the El Paso Times, which carried its own story on the autopsy report.


Earlier published accounts pertaining to search-warrant documents indicate the Jeffrey Farrey told his father, Jeffrey Farrey Sr., that the boy choked to death, after which they buried the body.

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The Farrey family went missing Nov. 15, 2013, and authorities discovered Jeffrey and Jenna Farrey with their 19-month-old son, Blake, two days later in a Michigan hotel on the Upper Peninsula, more than 600 miles away from their home in Texas. But Jackson was not with them.


Jackson’s body was found Nov. 20.


Jeffrey and Jenna Farrey have been in jail since they were found Nov. 17. Jeffrey has been indicted on a charge of injury to a child by omission. Jenna Farrey remains jailed on a warrant for probation violation stemming from her conviction in early 2013 on child endangerment charges involving her older son Blake.


Her attorney told the El Paso Times last week that based on the autopsy report, authorities may charge Jenna Farrey with injury to a child by omission, the same charge against her husband.

  • Nov. 21, 2013: Former St. Charles Man Charged in Infant Son’s Death in Texas


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