Baby mystery unsolved

 

On Friday evening, at the police station, Hitchin, the adjourned inquest was held on the body of a female child, about six weeks old, which was found close to Windmill Hill footpath, in circumstances already reported.

Supt. Reed informed the coroner that he had no fresh evidence to offer.  Every inquiry had been made to trace the identity of the child, and although the description of the child had been circulated in a large number of counties, and had also been gazetted in the police papers, he had not been able to secure any fresh evidence.  All the female children born in the Hitchin division since the beginning of the year had been traced, and none were missing, so the child did not belong to any part of that district.

Addressing the jury, the coroner said he did not think it would be of any use adjourning the inquest any further, and it was for the jury to find a verdict on the evidence, which showed that the child had been suffocated, and had only been dead about two hours when found.  It might have been accidentally suffocated, but if so it was very difficult to understand why it had been wrapped up and thrown over the fence.  He suggested one of two verdicts, either that of wilful murder against some person or persons unknown, or that it was suffocated but that there was not sufficient evidence to show how.  After retirement, the jury returned a verdict of death from suffocation, but that it was impossible to determine how it was caused.