BABY IN DUMP MURDERED

In an interview with Newsday yesterday, Alexandrov said two tests which were seemingly important to prove the baby was born alive were a floating test of the lungs, and a gastrointestinal floating test.

“A floating test was conducted and showed air went into the baby’s lungs,” he said.

“If the baby just made one breath being alive, the air goes into the lungs. When the lungs are placed into a container with water they float. In stillborn babies, when the lungs are put into the container with water and the lungs do not have any air, they sink.” He said a similar exercise was done with the baby’s stomach.

“The lungs, the stomach and the gastrointestinal tract were floating which means the baby was born alive. The baby was perfectly well developed weighing three kilogrammes and was 51 centimetres in length. The umbilical cord was cut and a small one-centimetre stomp was left.” Alexandrov said he faced a challenge in determining what to put on the death certificate.

“I put ‘abandonment in hostile environment of a newborn viable full term infant’.” He said according to national standards, in his profession, there are rules and regulations to follow and the case should be treated as an infanticide to investigate until proven otherwise.

“Leaving the innocent child all alone, absolutely helpless newborn in a hostile environment is a homicide.

If the baby was put into a box and then a garbage bag, the baby had a lack of oxygen. And if the baby was put in the box and then in a plastic bag, probably this little baby was going through hyperthermia (extreme increase in body temperature). For a baby of this age, I think all it takes is a matter of minutes to die. Maybe ten minutes or so.” He said for the sake of possible identification, if the police find the mother of the baby, samples of the baby’s bone marrow and bones from the thigh were kept for future analysis to prove the baby belongs to that woman.

Meanwhile, head of the Police Service’s Corporate Communications Unit, Ellen Lewis, yesterday told Newsday investigations are continuing and anyone with information on the whereabouts of the mother of the baby should come forward.