Dead Baby Mystery In Philly: Two Newborns Dumped In Vacant Lot After Autopsies, Police Want To Know By Who

Who dumped two dead babies in a vacant lot in Philadelphia? Police in the nation’s fifth-biggest city are trying to solve that bizarre mystery this Sunday — a mystery made even more macabre by the deep wounds on both babies, who appeared to be newborns — wounds consistent with medical autopsies, according to a report in The Philadelphia Inquirer.

But who performed the autopsies on the infants, one boy and one girl, who witnesses said appeared to be no more than a day old — and just as importantly, why?

@PhillyPolice on scene in N. Philly where two newborn bodies were found.. @FOX29philly pic.twitter.com/1vCABFVEwa

— jennifer joyce (@JenniJoyceTV) November 15, 2015

Police have only one clue so far. Witnesses told investigators that a person or persons driving a black pickup truck was earlier spotted in the area apparently dumping garbage in the lot, which is overgrown with weeds and already littered with all kinds of illegally disposed trash. Investigators on Sunday were attempting to find any security camera surveillance footage that could have captured images of the black pickup, a report by The Associated Press stated.

But whether the pickup truck had any connection to the dead babies found Sunday morning in the lot remains unclear, because trash is frequently disposed of in the vacant lot on the 1800 block of Palethorp Street in the Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, according to a WTXF-TV News report.

“I don’t know who would do that to these babies, or why,” Philly Police Spokesperson Officer Tanya Little told the Inquirer. “But I know it’s sad that these babies weren’t properly put to rest.”

But police and medical examiners have not been able to yet determine when the babies died, or when the autopsies were performed. Also unclear is whether the two newborns were related, perhaps possibly twins. Police said they simply cannot answer those questions as of Sunday.

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Both of the dead babies, found curled in the fetal position, displayed deep lacerations on their stomachs and heads, wounds that appeared to be inflicted after the infants somehow died — in other words, wounds consistent with an autopsy.

One of the two babies still had its umbilical cord attached.

The dead babies were discovered by two other children, nine-year-old Kasime Crawford and a neighbor, 12-year-old Natacha Rodriguez, who were on their way to a pizza shop when they made the gruesome discovery.

Kasime Crawford told WCAU-TVNews that he at first thought the two babies were dolls — until he was hit by the smell of decomposing bodies.

“Both of their faces were blue,” the nine-year-old told the TV station. “There’s a doll baby. That’s when it started stinking and that’s when we checked and there was a baby. I went home and told my dad.”

Young Kasime brought his father back to the lot, and his dad then called the police.

“One was big, one was small. They both looked like they were about a day old,” said the dad, Ronnie Jackson.

“You shouldn’t throw little kids away,” he added. “You could’ve left them in the hospital, gave them to a charity, gave them to the fire department or knocked on my door and gave them to me.”

Police are keeping a tight lid on further details about the grim discovery — if in fact they have any. A medical examiner on the scene said that it was not yet possible to determine the ages of the two newborns.

But Philadelphia Police Lieutenant Juan Perez also said he believed the babies appeared to be “just born.”

“We just want to make sure the integrity of the investigation is protected,” Perez said. “And make sure that these children are properly treated with the appropriate respect.”

Police say they are continuing to question residents of the Kensington, Philadelphia neighborhood in hopes of turning up new clues to solve the dead baby mystery.

[Featured Photo via WCAU Facebook Page]