Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 19, 1993 TAG: 9303190220
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RON BROWN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
DEAD BABY DISCOVERED IN TRASH
A worker at McDonald's on Plantation Road off Interstate 81 in Roanoke County found a stillborn baby stuffed into a trash bag Thursday morning, police said.The employee was emptying trash cans around 10 when he picked up the trash bag and carried it to a Dumpster.
When he looked inside he spotted the baby lying among hamburger wrappers and paper cups.
The baby's umbilical cord was still attached. The body had been wrapped in a towel.
The medical examiner's office determined that the baby had been born within the previous 24 to 48 hours. It had never breathed after birth, said Roanoke County Investigations Sgt. Paul McElvein.
Dr. William Massello, assistant chief medical examiner for Western Virginia, said the baby did not appear to have been born prematurely. He declined to say how much the baby weighed.
Authorities were left with few leads. They found no evidence of a recent birth in the restaurant's restrooms.
McElvein said the proximity of the restaurant to the interstate opened up virtually endless possibilities.
"We sent out telegrams to police departments all over the East Coast," he said. "Basically, we are looking for a lady who was supposed to have a baby, who doesn't have a baby now."
McElvein said the infant was a white male.
Roanoke County investigators cordoned off a portion of the restaurant's parking lot during lunch hour as they gathered evidence and took photographs of the scene.
Last year, the General Assembly made it unlawful for someone to improperly dispose of an infant's body.
Roanoke County Commonwealth's Attorney Skip Burkart said he'll research the law further today.
"It's a tragic thing," he said.
The General Assembly acted after several celebrated cases in which infants' bodies were improperly discarded.
In December 1991, a man clearing a roadside drainage ditch in Franklin County came across the decomposed remains of a stillborn baby.
Earlier that year, Franklin County authorities were called to a Pleasant Hill residence after dogs dragged a body of an infant into a front yard.
Also in 1991, a Henry County woman disposed of her stillborn baby in a trash bag.
In late 1990, a newborn baby was found in a Dumpster on Mountain Avenue Southwest in Roanoke. The child, dubbed Baby Isaiah by nurses at Roanoke Memorial Hospital, died five days after his birth.
Keywords:
FATALITY