Mom charged a year after remains of 9-year-old found in bag in Oregon forest, cops say

Someone walking through the forest nearly a year ago discovered human remains of a 9-year-old girl shoved into a duffle bag, Oregon police said.

Now her mother has been arrested and charged with aggravated murder, according to the Oregon State Police.

The remains were found Dec. 10, 2020 in the H.B. Van Duzer Scenic Corridor in Lincoln County, the Oregon State Police said.

At the time, police thought the girl had been dead for 30 to 60 days before her remains were discovered.

Police searched for information on the girl for months, hoping it would lead to identification.

“Investigators and experts at the Oregon State Medical Examiner’s Office, collected samples from the child’s remains for DNA testing by a specialty DNA laboratory,” Oregon State Police said in a Wednesday, Dec. 1, news release. “Parabon Nano Labs extracted DNA from the samples submitted, and on October 4, 2021, notified OSP investigators they identified the deceased child.”

The girl was identified as Haley Mae Coblentz, a 9-year-old who was born in Colorado, police said. Since 2015, the child had lived with her mom and her mom’s girlfriend in the Pacific Northwest.

At the time of her death, the girl was not reported missing, police said.

On Tuesday, Nov. 30, the girl’s mother, 29-year-old Shawna Browning, and Lauren Harrison, 34, were found in Detroit, police said. They were served a search warrant of their car and hotel room.

Both women were arrested and charged with aggravated murder, police said.

Browning and Harrison are being held without bail at detention facilities in Wayne County, Michigan.

This story was originally published December 1, 2021 at 3:56 PM with the headline "Mom charged a year after remains of 9-year-old found in bag in Oregon forest, cops say."