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While Waudby lay distraught in hospital, a key piece of evidence in the death of 21-month-old Jenna lay unexamined in the office of a trusted pediatric pathologist at Toronto's renowned Hospital for Sick Children.

"It was horrible," Waudby recalled of that day in May 1999 when her newborn was taken from her. "I was never allowed to be alone with him, even at the hospital."

Several years later, Waudby, who saw the second-degree murder charge against her dropped before going to trial, awaits the results of a coroner's review into the work of Dr. Charles Smith.

Waudby, 40, says a DNA analysis of pubic-like hair found on Jenna's body - evidence that went missing during Smith's investigation - would have meant the charge that derailed her life would never have been laid.

"You just don't put things in your drawer or leave them on the top of your desk. People's lives were at stake for those little pieces of evidence," Waudby said in an interview from her Peterborough, Ont., home.

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"The real problem has always been the lack of eyes," said lawyer Cindy Wasser of the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted. "There's a real shortage of pathologists, period."

In Ontario, it's been announced that 44 of Smith's cases would be reviewed by the coroner's office after an audit of his work turned up numerous incidents of misplaced forensic samples from autopsies.

The results have the potential to add more names to the ranks of the wrongfully accused and convicted in the coming year, most notably that of William Mullins-Johnson.

The Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., man spent 12 years in prison for the death of his four-year-old niece after Smith testified for the Crown during his trial.

Key forensic evidence that Mullins-Johnson could have used to defend himself had been misplaced. It was found earlier this year in an envelope Smith's office. Further testing found the girl died of natural causes.

Mullins-Johnson has been released on bail while Federal Justice Minister Irwin Cotler reviews his case.

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"The real problem has always been the lack of eyes," said lawyer Cindy Wasser of the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted. "There's a real shortage of pathologists, period."

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I can testify to that. Along with a severe shortage of specialized technicians, we have a shortage of pathologists. In the entire country, there are perhaps a dozen neuropathologists.