Police in Plain City, Ohio, received a disturbing call Thursday afternoon — human remains had been found in the back of a garbage truck. Responding officers soon found the body of an infant.
“The infant appeared to be a full-term newborn from zero to one month of age,” officials initially said in a press release.
A resident said the discovery shocked the Bluestem Lane neighborhood. “There was somebody in the neighborhood that said they heard a scream from the waste management employee,” the resident, Danielle Steagall, told CBS affiliate WBNS.
“Absolutely heartbreaking, really makes you want to hold your babies closer,” Steagall told the station.
Medics pronounced the infant dead and police secured the scene. The local coroner’s office and the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation responding to the scene.
The remains were taken for a preliminary autopsy that was performed by the Montgomery County Medical Examiner’s Office Friday morning. Officials said there was no known cause of death.
“The autopsy did reveal that the deceased infant was female and that the umbilical cord was still attached,” according to a police update. “Our office has submitted evidence obtained during the autopsy to the Bureau of Criminal Investigation Laboratory for DNA analysis.”
The full autopsy results will likely not be known for several weeks. But officials say police are fielding many tips and reviewing security video.
“We are focused on identifying the infant and determining what led to the infant’s death,” the police department said in a news release. “We are also concerned about the health of the mother due to the strong potential that the baby was born without professional healthcare assistance.”
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