Builder finds baby remains wrapped in twine. Police investigate potential murder. Discovery sparks search for answers.
David Dent has six kids. These days, flashbacks haunt him. He found the remains in Bishop Auckland last July during a renovation. The baby was full-term and wrapped in old paper.
Police suspect the baby might have been killed. Twine was around its neck. They don’t know if it was a boy or girl and are waiting for carbon dating results; the newspapers date back to 1910.
Detectives also hope for a DNA match to help find relatives. David felt shocked when he unwrapped the baby. His colleague also saw it, but wants to remain anonymous.
David thought of his young daughter Bella, then he accidentally dropped the baby and the arm broke off. David called his wife in a panic and she told him to contact the police right away.
David was pulling up floorboards when he found a ball of newspaper. He saw the baby’s tiny ribs, thinking at first it was a big pigeon, but then he spotted the skull and was very shocked by this.
He dropped the baby carefully onto the floor, where a small arm and hand came loose. The skull had a full set of teeth already. David thought about his daughter’s size at birth; she was so very small.
David FaceTimed Grace, his wife, who knew right away it was a baby. She also saw the twine around its neck. David said it looked like strangulation; the remains were light and fragile.
David said it felt like finding a dead bird. It was small and crispy to the touch. He knew at once what it was after seeing the skull, which was about the size of his daughter.
David used to work for an undertaker. Bodies with severe injuries didn’t bother him, but finding this baby upset him deeply. Police then told him to stop working and leave.
David told them he witnessed something awful and did not expect to find the baby. He felt very dry and needed a drink, but an officer told him he couldn’t leave as it was now a murder scene.
Police held David for a couple of hours while he gave a statement. CID officers told him to keep quiet. He told his wife about it, and the radio reported the baby discovery later.
He had to pull his van over because the radio report caught him off guard. He still has PTSD from this incident and feels police haven’t kept him well informed. He gets flashbacks sometimes.
He thinks about how someone could hurt a baby and remembers his six children. He hopes they can bury the baby soon and hopes they find some relatives. Police are seeking old records of the house.
They are looking at records from 1900 to 1920 to find out who lived there then. Because of the twine, police see the death as suspicious. The building is from the Victorian era.
It once housed a mother and baby unit, but police think the baby was hidden earlier. A police inspector wants to find out who the baby was and what happened to it, so the baby can have a proper funeral.
A news report suggested a possible suspect: a woman named Mary Jane Walker lived there and worked in a pie shop downstairs. She was 22 and single when she lived at the property in 1911. The census records say she was a servant.
But this link is just speculation for now, as there is no proof. She stayed at the property for over 50 years and never got married. Back then, being pregnant but not married was shameful, so women had to hide such pregnancies.
David heard the reports about Mary Jane Walker. He hasn’t heard anything from the police since. He wants to know who the baby was and what happened.