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22-year cold case victim ‘Baby Hope’ ID’d

The identity of a little girl whose gruesome and senseless death haunted authorities for more two decades has finally been revealed.

The real name of Baby Hope, who was found murdered in 1991, was Angelica Ramirez, a law-enforcement source told The Post.

The dramatic discovery was made after police tracked down the girl’s mother thanks to a renewed push to solve the case on the 22nd anniversary of the day her body was found.

“She was really an angel,” one law-enforcement source said, referring to the tragic girl’s name.

Police have obtained the birth certificate that identifies Angelica, although other information, such as the date and place of birth, were not revealed. She is believed to have been between the age of 3 and 5 when she died.

She was buried at St. Raymond’s Cemetery in The Bronx in 1993 by the officers who investigated her death.

Her body was found stuffed in a filthy cooler near the Henry Hudson Parkway on a summer day in 1991.

Cops tracked down her mother in Washington Heights after re-releasing a sketch of the girl’s face in July.

It was an effort detectives had repeated every year since the child’s death. And this year, a tipster who knew the victim’s sister saw the flier and came forward, law-enforcement sources said Monday.

The sister, now in her 20s, told investigators she remembers traveling to Mexico with her father after leaving Angelica with her mother, police sources said. She said she never saw her sibling again.

A funeral was held for Baby Hope after her body was discovered.Dan Cronin

The mother, an immigrant from Mexico, told police she was afraid to contact authorities about her daughter’s death because her husband was abusive, cops said.

She also claimed the dad had disappeared with the girl in 1991.

Investigators are looking into whether the father, who is believed to be in Mexico, was involved in the crime, which also included sexual assault.

Neither parent has been publicly identified.

Police Commissioner Ray Kelly on Tuesday cheered his department’s hard work on the case.

“This has been an investigation that has been conducted for the last 22 years, and the detectives in the 34th Precinct Detective Squad and Cold Case Squad did great work. And I’m proud of them,” Kelly told The Post.