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Baby

Age: 0

Sex: female

Date: 30 Aug 1928

Place: Exwick

The body of a newly-born-child was found in a drain pipe wrapped up in a brown paper parcel.

The pipe led into the River Exe and was near the pathway. It was found by two boys that had been playing nearby.

A boy said that he was down my the mill leat when he glanced up a drainpipe and saw a brown paper parcel. He said that a smaller boy then pulled it out and they ripped off the brown paper to reveal a further wrapping of white paper. He said that owing to the parcel smelling badly he kicked it down the bank into the river and then went down the bank and removed the rest of the paper and discovered the body of the dead child.

A policeman said that he carried the body to the police mortuary and found that it had been wrapped up in tissue paper first, then newspaper with the date and headings torn off and then finally in brown paper and tied up in string.

A doctor said that the body was of a newly-born female child and was in an advanced state of decomposition with no visible marks of violence and nothing to indicate the cause of death.

An open verdict was returned.

see www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk

see Exeter and Plymouth Gazette - Tuesday 04 September 1928

see Exeter and Plymouth Gazette - Friday 31 August 1928