(ABC 6 News) – The Forst family was enjoying their time out on the river, until they found someone that changed their lives forever. The Forst family believes they were meant to find Baby Angel.

“I hear ‘Mom, Mom, there’s some angels in here,'” said Sharon Forst.

Sharon remembers it like it was yesterday.

“My son Josh said ‘there’s a baby in here,'” said Sharon.

What would have been a typical day for the Forst family on the Mississippi River would instead spark a 13-year cold case.

— RELATED: “Baby Angel” cold case break —

For the Forsts, they say the gruesome discovery was divine intervention.

Instead of heading north on the river that day, something pulled them south instead.

“Which is odd because I collect angels and I remember saying ‘you know, why anyone would throw that away? That’s kind of odd,'” said Sharon.

This angel collector had no idea the type of angel her son would find buried among these figurines at the bottom of the bag, though.

“That for me has really shaped how I look at families, how I look at raising children, and how anyone can look at a child and toss it away like garbage. It’s just one of those questions that we never may even have that answer,” said Caleb Forst, Sharon’s son.

But that answer could be close, after new developments in the case haunting this family and Winona County have finally been brought to light.

— RELATED: Investigators match possible mother in Winona area ‘Baby Angel’ cold case from 2011 —

“I think the thing that I’ve struggled most with over the years, cause with we don’t know the story, we don’t know if the mother was in distress, it might even be a mother you know. But it was just the fact that somebody placed her in that river with intention of her not being found,” said Sharon.

Over the years, the family has remained optimistic this nameless and unclaimed child would one day be given the justice she deserved.

Ever since, Sharon has taught her students about Baby Angel hoping to keep her memory alive.

“Especially this year, it was a little more surreal our eighth graders will be thirteen and this is thirteen, so actually one of them said to me ‘she could’ve been our classmate’ I’m like ‘yeah, she could’ve been,'” said Sharon.

Every day, the family feels they get closer to answers, but often think about the what-ifs.

“I don’t know, but we think about what if Josh hadn’t opened the bag and listened to you and been like I’m not going to open it. We probably would’ve just thrown it in the trash without knowing,” said Caleb.

“Or if we wouldn’t have moved the boat over and actually picked it out of the river. I don’t know, there were just a lot of things that were just meant to be,” said Sharon.

ABC 6 News did reach out Winona County Sheriff Ron Ganrude he says they are no updates yet on the DNA that’s being tested but should have results in a few weeks.