Baby

The body of a newly born female child was found wrapped up in a pillow case on the bed of the River Wear at Sunderland on the morning of Sunday 7 October 1906.

The doctor said that the child had had a separate existence, but not for a lengthened period and that he thought that death had resulted from suffocation before it was put into the water. He noted that the child was well nourished.

He said that it was probable that the child had been smothered in the pillow case although noted that it was possible that the suffocation had been caused by drowning.

He said that when he saw the child's body he did not think that it had been in the water for more than a few hours and that at the time he saw it it was probably about 18 hours since its birth.

An open verdict was returned.