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In 1993, in a deeply religious, working-class corner of rural Ohio, 22-year-old Gail Ritchey gave birth alone and left her newborn in the woods, later telling authorities the baby had been stillborn. The case went cold for decades until DNA evidence identified her as the mother, and in 2019 she was arrested and charged with murder in what investigators called the Geauga's Child case. By then, Ritchey was living an ordinary, quietly devout life as a wife, mother of three, and grandmother. Director Jessica Earnshaw, who spent years embedded with Ritchey and her family, builds a documentary that plays like a true-crime procedural but resists easy verdicts. Interviews with Ritchey's husband Mark, her children, her church community, law enforcement, and a forensic psychologist who explains the phenomenon of pregnancy denial complicate the question of guilt and culpability, without excusing the outcome. Baby Doe world-premiered at SXSW in March 2025 to strong reviews, with The Hollywood Reporter calling it head-spinning and absorbing, and went on to win the Global Health Competition at the Cleveland International Film Festival, earn a SXSW Grand Jury Award nomination, and win the Jury Award for Best Feature Documentary at the Cambria Film Festival. Sarah Paulson serves as an executive producer. Earnshaw, whose acclaimed debut Jacinta (2020) also examined a woman shaped by trauma and the justice system, again turns her camera on a subject society is quick to judge and slow to understand.