The death of a newborn baby girl whose body was found at the Beetham landfill, in Port-of-Spain yesterday has triggered a criminal investigation as police began searching for the child’s parents.
Scavengers found the baby’s body in a garbage bag around 5.30 am and immediately notified their supervisors.
Officers from the Homicide Bureau and Crime Scene Unit were also called in.
A district medical officer ordered the removal of the child’s body to the Forensic Science Centre in Federation Park for an autopsy.
In an interview yesterday, pathologist Dr Valery Alexandrov said the baby was full term after a nine-month pregnancy.
“She was mature, a girl and didn’t have any abnormalities and was fully developed and the umbilical cord was cut and a stump left,” he said.
Alexandrov said the case should be considered a homicide but because it was a baby it was called infanticide.
“The homicide of a newborn is called infanticide. It had no disease that could have contributed to the death of the baby. The baby was dumped and it was abandoned and the case should be investigated by homicide,” he said.
He said on the death certificate he indicated the baby died as a result of the abandonment of a mature naturally born viable infant.
“It had normal weight, shape and condition. If a newborn baby is placed in a hostile environment it could die and it could cry to death in an hour,” he said.
Investigations are continuing.