THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, February 14, 1995 TAG: 9502140287
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JON FRANK, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH LENGTH: Short : 41 lines
The body of an infant girl was found Monday morning on a conveyor belt at a SPSA trash plant here, and a preliminary autopsy determined that the child was alive at birth.
The case is being investigated as a homicide.
Police spokesman G.A. Brown said Monday that the child's umbilical cord was still attached.
Police do not know how the child died, how long she had been dead or how the body got to the garbage-processing plant on Victory Boulevard, Brown said.
Felicia D. Walker-Blow, public information officer for the Southeastern Public Service Authority of Virginia, said the infant's body was spotted about 10:30 a.m. among trash that was moving along a conveyor belt in preparation for shredding and burning.
About 2,000 tons of trash a day are shoveled onto the belts from a tipping floor. The trash is hauled to the plant by trucks from all over Southeastern Virginia, Blow said.
The plant had last been cleared of garbage Thursday night. The body could have arrived at any time after the facility opened Friday. Blow said police collected samples of trash found near the infant to help determine where the body came from.
Anyone with information about the child or her mother is asked to call Portsmouth police at 393-8536 or Crime Line at 488-7777.
The body was the fourth discovered at the plant since it opened in 1987. ILLUSTRATION: STAFF MAP
KEYWORDS: UNIDENTIFIED BODY ABANDONED BABY MURDER HOMICIDE by CNB