50+ year old Mummified Baby Found
(This story orginally appeared in January of this year.)
http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?secti ... id=4962418
DELRAY BEACH, Florida (CNN) -- The partially mummified body of a baby,
wrapped in 1950s newspapers, was found Monday by a woman going through
her deceased parents' belongings in a southeast Florida storage
facility, according to police.
"It was a baby boy, partially mummified," said Delray Beach police
spokesman Jeff Messer. "The woman was pretty upset when she found it.
You could make out the features pretty clearly." The child had hair, he
said.
The body was in a small suitcase, which was placed inside a larger
suitcase, said Messer, who viewed the remains.
"It was spooky," Messer said.
The baby was wrapped in a newspaper called The Daily Times, dated
January 9, 1957, police said. Authorities are not sure where it was
published, but were checking the New York and New Jersey area because
the couple lived there before retiring in Florida.
The body was "very well preserved. In my experience, I have not seen
remains in that condition after such a long time," said Police Lt. Mark
Woods.
The Palm Beach medical examiner's office was bringing in a forensic
anthropologist to determine the baby's age and cause of death. The
medical examiner previously declined comment.
The storage bay had been rented since 1996, Messer said. The woman's
father died in 2002 or 2003, and his wife died last year, he said. The
couple lived in Delray Beach at one point. Woods said their belongings
were stored in the warehouse after they moved to Florida in the middle
to late 1980s.
The daughter was notified by the warehouse owner that rent on the
storage bay was overdue and the contents would be sold at auction if
the account was not brought up to date, police said. She flew from New
Jersey to examine the contents of the storage bay and made the gruesome
discovery.
Police said the woman did not disturb the remains or remove the
newspapers they were wrapped in.
The daughter, who told police she did not know of any stillbirths or
abortions in the family, gave them permission to search the storage
area without a warrant, Messer said. It was described as being about
the size of a one-car garage and was filled with furniture and
housewares.
Police are treating the warehouse as a crime scene.