Baby

The body of a newly-born male child was found dead in the River Derwent on Thursday 9 June 1949.

It was found opposite Bass's Recreation Ground in Derby in a shoe box in a bicycle saddlebag by two boys.

A Derby Borough police surgeon said that a green silk scarf had been tied around the child's neck and two pieces of red cloth had been thrust into its mouth and throat and that the child’s death was due to asphyxia following suffocation.

After the coroner heard the evidence he said, 'Whoever did that to a new-born child can only be described as a fiend'. However, he added that he did not propose to make public all the information which the police had collected.

After hearing the coroner, the police surgeon said that he agreed with the coroner in that it would have been impossible for the mother of the child to have murdered it.

A detective sergeant said that extensive inquiries by the CID had failed to reveal the identity of the child.

The coroner returned a verdict of 'murder by some person or persons unknown'.