Hunt for mother of baby dumped in bin

17 March 2004

BARCELONA – Investigators probing the death of a baby whose body was found dumped in a rubbish bin were on Wednesday trying to find the child’s mother.

They are checking hospitals and ambulance stations to see if any dealt with a woman who was about to give birth.

The body of an infant boy was found in a plastic bag which had been left in a rubbish bin in the Barcelona district of Sarriá-Sant Gervasi late Tuesday.

The child still had an umbilical cord attached and was thought to have been only a few hours old.

How the child died or who the mother is have yet not been established, authorities said.

An autopsy was being held Wednesday to try to discover exactly when the child died and what caused its death.

However, doctors said it seemed likely that the child died of suffocation.

Police have cordoned off the rubbish bin where the baby’s body was found and are keen to establish what led the mother to throw the child’s body in a bin.

Officers were also contacting gynaecologists in Barcelona who might have seen a woman who was about to give birth but was in a distressed state.

They were also interviewing neighbours in the area where the baby’s body was discovered.

A man who was emptying his rubbish in the bin late Tuesday spotted what he thought was a child’s body and ran to a nearby bar for help.

[Copyright EFE with Expatica]

Subject: Spanish news