A newborn baby girl at Auckland’s mortuary is waiting to be claimed.
How she died is unknown. When she died is unknown. Who her parents are is unknown.
All that is known is that she was found last Monday evening at the Auckland Council recycling facility in Onehunga. And she was dead.
“This baby girl is laying in a mortuary, with no name and no one to give her the funeral she deserves, so she can be laid to rest,” Detective Inspector Scott Beard of Auckland City Police says.
The post-mortem didn’t reveal much, except that she was born full-term. Beard says there’s a possibility she was stillborn, but it’s not clear.
It is one of the more complex cases he has worked on. There is a baby girl, and that is the only solid thing he has.
It is a case the police know they will heavily rely on the public for help, but the much needed exposure was usurped by the country going into a prompt Level 4 lockdown.
On Sunday, police released snapshots of clothing found at the same recycling plant as the body, hoping they would jog someone’s memory and might lead them to finding the parents.
That included a beanie, a distinctive pink sweater, a pink t-shirt, two baby onesies with colourful prints on them - one with Winnie the Pooh, bees and red balloons.
“A couple of people have come forward about the clothing, but nothing about the mother yet.
“We are getting quite a lot of shares on social media, and were getting some good hits before Covid was announced,” Beard says.
It could be coincidental the clothing was found close to the baby at the recycling plant, but it might not be.
Beard says they are keeping an open mind about what has happened, and where the parents are from.
They could be from anywhere in the country, and it could have been a birth which involved a lot of complications.
“But that a woman, or mother, thinks in this country this is the last resort of what to do is really sad. People feeling like there are no other options,” Beard says, trailing off, carefully forming his sentences and thoughts.
He keeps referring to the baby as she. It’s important to treat her with dignity in death, he says.
And that’s what gets him, and why he wants to find the baby’s family.
“We need to have some respect for her. She deserves a funeral and to be laid to rest. It’s sad.”
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