Frozen Baby Mom: Katie Stockton Sentenced to 50 Years for Newborn Baby Crystals Death

Nearly a decade after Baby Crystal's remains were found along a rural roadway in 2004, the newborns mother the Katie Stockton, 32, was sentenced to 50 years in prison Friday.

Stockton faced up to 60 years in prison for admitting to leaving her newborn daughter, Baby Crystal, to freeze to death discarded on a desolate road in Illinois.

Stockton hid her pregnancy and gave birth to the baby in secret on Dec. 17, 2004. Afterward, she stuffed the baby and soiled clothing into an orange shopping bag and placed it along a dead-end road near her parents' Rockton home, according to The Associate Press.

She was questioned in the baby's death at the time, but denied she was the mother and refused to provide a DNA sample, ABC Illinois reported.

Stockton was identified as Baby Crystal's mother when detectives collected a DNA sample from a cigarette butt they say her discard.  Authorities said that saliva on the butt matched DNA found on the scene.

Stockton was arrested in 2009 after further tests showed she was the baby's mother with a 99.96 percent certainty, The AP reported.

"I think the judge sent a strong message to this community and to all communities that this is a tragic event that has occurred. A mother has taken her child's life and that this type of conduct is not going to be tolerated in this community or any other," said Winnebago County States Attorney Joe Bruscato.