By Robert Florida
Newark – Thirty-seven years after discovering a dead baby, the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office seeks the public’s help in identifying the newborn, who was found abandoned in South Orange a day after Thanksgiving.
On the morning of November 28, 1986, sanitation workers found the baby atop a trash can behind an apartment building at 5 Cottage Street in South Orange. The body was wrapped in a towel and a yellow table runner and placed in a wicker picnic basket, which was left on the trash can. The white male baby weighed five pounds and still had his umbilical cord.
Detectives intend to use DNA evidence and genetic databases to identify the parents or relatives of the baby, but they ask the public’s assistance in solving the case. A photo of the towel is below. And investigators suspect the wicker basket may have been bought from a local store.
On the 37th anniversary of the incident, the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office asks anyone with information about the case to please call its tip line at 1-877-TIPS-4EC or email HomicideTips@njecpo.org. The information will be kept confidential.
