Baby Hope’s Mom Dies in 2018
Police never interviewed Larson because she died on October 21, 2018, two years after she suffered a stroke amid other health complications, her son, Rick Larson, tells A&E Crime + Investigation. She was 55 and still married to her husband, Richard Noel Larson, at the time of her death. It was unclear in 2025 if Richard was still alive.
Shepherd told police he never knew he fathered a child with her. He officially named the victim Hope Shepherd.
“Now we have a baby, that’s over here, that has a name,” Franklin Mayor Steve Barnett told reporters during a July 2025 press conference to announce the identities of the infant’s parents, WTHR reported.
Rick never met his baby sister. He was 9 when she was born, but he doesn’t remember his mother ever being pregnant or giving birth and says she never gave any hints that the dead infant found in the park’s garbage was his sibling. But in hindsight, comments she made about the case when he was a kid raised red flags, he says.
He remembers walking by the park where the infant’s body was found and his mother talking about the case. She also “would talk about how she wishes she would’ve had a daughter,” Rick says.
His parents were close friends with the Shepherd family but he had no idea that Paul and his mother had an affair.
“I remember Paul Shepherd as a kid. I remember growing up, we would go to their house,” he says.
Case Reopened in 2019
In 2019, one year after Cheryl died, Franklin police reopened the Baby Hope case. They were confident that substantial advances in DNA technology would reinvigorate the investigation.
Police sought the expertise of Chief Genetic Genealogist CeCe Moore and a team at Parabon NanoLabs to analyze the baby’s DNA. Using reverse genealogy, they were able to identify Hope’s parents.
“It can be really intensive, but it can be done,” Moore tells A&E Crime + Investigation of the identification process. “It's a matter of time and resources.”
Scientists examined hundreds of thousands of genetic markers and the process eventually led them to Cheryl and Paul.
“I think it’s proof of concept that this is a really powerful and valuable method,” Moore says. “Even though it may be controversial to some, this baby deserved to be identified. Our job is to identify the baby and give them their name back—at least their identity—and make sure the family knew they existed.”
Paul Shepherd Had No Idea the Baby Was His
After discovering the baby’s identity, police interviewed Shepherd, who was “completely unaware” that Cheryl had become pregnant.
“The very thought that a child fathered by him was subjected to such evil is one he cannot escape from,” Shepherd said in a written statement that police in July 2025 shared during a news conference with reporters held at the cemetery where the infant was buried.
Franklin Police Chief Kirby Cochran said in the same press conference that some details about the case may never be known, including why the child was killed “as Cheryl Larson died in 2018, a year before the investigation reopened,” The Republic newspaper of Franklin reported.
Cochran and other officials at the news conference apparently made no mention of Cheryl’s husband Richard, according to media reports about the event.
Charges May Never Be Filed
Franklin Police Lt. Chris Tennell said at the news conference that no charges had been filed and that it was uncertain if they will be. Authorities did not identify suspects or people of interest in the case at the news conference.
“Circumstances are beyond the control of investigators, preventing further advancement in this case,” Tennell said, according to The Republic. “Following a thorough review of known facts and circumstances, formal charges will not be filed at this time. If new information emerges, the matter may be reconsidered.”
Kirby did not respond to A&E Crime + Investigation's request for comment on the case and whether Richard Larson was alive or had been located by authorities.
Richard Larson's Whereabouts
A year after Baby Hope died, the Larson family moved away. But they returned three years later, Rick says.
“My parents insisted on moving back to that exact same neighborhood,” Rick says.
Rick says he is struck that after moving away from Franklin, his parents decided to move back and “go back to where it all happened.” He says he maintained a relationship with his father until his mother died in 2018. During their last conversation, Richard said he had been diagnosed with colon cancer and advised his son to get checked for it.
Rick says he believes his father died but does not have evidence of it. Efforts by A&E Crime + Investigation to determine if Richard was alive or dead were unsuccessful.
Even though the DNA testing managed to identify the infant, Moore says that “when something really horrible like this happens, there's never any closure to it.”
“The damage is unfortunately done, and we can't undo that, but we can help to provide answers, and we have seen that once those answers and resolution is provided to families, they're finally able to set down that burden.”
Police never told Rick about any suspicions they had about who killed the infant, but he believes his parents or one of them was to blame.
“My Dad or Mom had to have killed that baby,” he says. “I look back and I'm like, ‘Well, one of you guys was heartless.’ One of these people had to have killed that baby, and one of them definitely knew about it.”
Cochran, the Franklin police chief, did not respond to A&E Crime + Investigation's request for comment on Rick’s suspicions.
