Monterey County District Attorney Jeannine M. Pacioni announced today that on February 18, 2026, Pamela Ferreyra, age 61 of Watsonville, was sentenced to 13 years and four months in state prison for committing one count of voluntary manslaughter and one count of felony child abuse for the December 1994 death of her infant son. Ferreyra admitted an allegation that she caused great bodily injury to baby John Doe during the crime. Both of these offenses are serious and violent felonies and considered strikes under California’s Three Strikes Law.
On December 3, 1994, the partial remains of a two-to-three-day-old baby boy were discovered off Garin Road in Prunedale. An autopsy confirmed that the child was born alive, outside of a hospital setting, and that he had not been fed for approximately 24 hours prior to his death. The child’s cause of death could not be determined. No missing person’s report was filed, and a thorough investigation by Monterey County Sheriff’s Office resulted in no viable leads as to the identity of Baby John Doe’s parents.
In July 2020, District Attorney Jeannine M. Pacioni created the District Attorney’s Office Cold Case Task Force, which represents the largest and most comprehensive county-wide effort to investigate, solve and prosecute cold-case homicides in Monterey County. The Cold Case Task Force and Monterey County Sheriff’s Office had DNA samples from Baby John Doe’s remains submitted for further testing, and in 2024, DNA analysis subsequently identified Ferreyra as the child’s mother.
When interviewed, Ferreyra told the investigators that she hid her pregnancy from everyone around her, including her husband and children. She admitted Baby John Doe was born alive in her home. After he was born, Ferreyra said she dressed him, put him in her car, drove him to the remote Prunedale location, and left him there. She never returned to the location or investigated what happened to Baby John Doe.
Ferreyra’s guilty plea was the tenth conviction for a cold-case murder since the establishment of the Cold Case Task Force.
The case of Baby John Doe was investigated by multiple current and retired investigators with the District Attorney’s Office and the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office.
In January 2022, the District Attorney’s Office Cold Case Task Force received a $535,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Assistance. The grant, titled “FY 2021 Prosecuting Cold Cases Using DNA,” provides funding to support forensic testing and investigative activities in the prosecution of cold cases where DNA from a suspect has been identified. Funding from the U.S. Department of Justice grant enabled the Cold Case Task Force to seek justice in this case.
