A BUILDER who found the 100-year-old remains of a dead baby hidden under floorboards says he is still traumatised months later.
Dad-of-six David Dent, who suffers haunting flashbacks, hopes a vital clue can prove the infant’s identity so they can be finally laid to rest.
David DentDavid Dent on the roof of the property where the baby was found[/caption]
David DentDavid pulled up these floorboards before finding the baby’s remains[/caption]
Police at the scene in July last yearNNP
He was carrying out refurbishment work on an upstairs flat in Bishop Auckland, County Durham, last July when he made the grim discovery.
The skeletal remains of the full-term newborn had been bundled in newspaper.
Cops believe the child – whose gender is unknown – may have been killed after birth due to twine wrapped around their neck.
Detectives are currently awaiting results from carbon dating analysis on the bones to confirm the year the baby died – with the newspapers dating to 1910.
They also expect to obtain a DNA profile that could help them track down living relatives.
David said he was in shock when he unwrapped the remains after lifting up the floorboards with a colleague, who did not wish to be named.
He said he was reminded of his youngest daughter Bella as he looked at the baby before accidentally dropping it, causing its arm and hand to break off.
The 41-year-old Facetimed his wife, who advised him to call the police.
David told The Sun: “I was stood with a length of 4×2, popping these floorboards up, and we found a ball of newspaper.
“All I could see was a ribcage… We picked it up and the first my mate said was ‘urgh, what’s that there?’ I thought it must be a big pigeon.
“When I got hold of it, I looked at it and for some reason I pulled the paper off it and I’ve seen a little skull.
“When I saw that I was in a bit of shock. I half placed it, half dropped it on the floor.
“I noticed a little arm and a hand that fell off it.”
David said the skull had a full set of teeth, which he didn’t realise newborns had.
“I remember the size of it was about the same size as my daughter when she was born.
“I put him in my hand and picked him up, I was vaguely thinking about my daughter Bella, she was the exact same size.”
After Facetiming his wife Grace, he explained “she said ‘yeah, it’s a baby’ straightaway”.
David said she also spotted the two lengths of twine around the child’s neck.
“It’s been strangled, you can see that,” he added.
Describing the remains, David said: “I can’t explain, it was like dead light but looked like when you find a dead bird, it was in my left hand and I couldn’t feel the weight of it.
“It was that little and crispy. I can’t really explain the texture, it was just really thin, but I knew what it was straight away when I saw the skull.
“It was the size of my daughter’s, she was only 3lbs and that’s when it sunk in after that.”
David said he previously worked for an undertaker and has seen “bodies that have had their heads smashed in and all sorts and it never bothered me”.
“But when I found the bairn like that it affected us.”
He said the police officers who arrived said “you need to stop what you’re doing and get out, that was the attitude”.
“I said I’m sorry but I’ve just witnessed something there that I’ve never witnessed before in my life, that I wasn’t expecting.
“I went downstairs and all my mouth was dry and I thought I’m going to need a can of pop or something here.
“[An officer] said you’re going nowhere. It’s a murder scene, that type of thing.”
David said he was held at the scene for a couple of hours and later had to give a statement to the police.
He added: “The CID guys said just keep it to yourself. Obviously, I told my wife about it.
“It wasn’t until the next day, the Tuesday, when I was driving my van back home and they said on the radio it was an actual baby that they’d found, and I had to pull over because it caught me off guard.”
He said PTSD from the incident is still with him and he is disappointed that police haven’t kept him in the loop about developments like they promised.
“I’ve not been too bad these last couple of months,” explained David.
“When I get a decent drink on the weekend when I’m out with the lads and that, it’s weird, it just gets like flashed back.
“I think about how anyone could do that to a baby because I’ve got six kids of my own.”
He added: “Hopefully the baby can be put to rest, with a bit of luck they’ll find its relatives.”
Detectives from Durham Constabulary are attempting to trace historic records for the property between 1900 and 1920 as part of efforts to identify who lived there at that time.
Due to the twine wrapped around the baby’s neck, cops are treating the death as suspicious.
The property dates to the Victorian period and at one stage housed a church-run mother and baby unit, although it is believed that the baby was concealed before that time.
Detective Chief Inspector Mel Sutherland, from Durham Constabulary, said in August last year: “The evidence suggests this has happened a very long time ago, which makes investigating the circumstances extremely difficult, but we still have a duty to that baby.
“My focus is on finding out who the baby is, what happened and how it came to be under the floorboards of that house.
“As soon as we are able to, I am determined that this little baby is given an appropriate and dignified funeral.”
It comes after reports last year suggested a spinster who worked in a café and pie shop that used to be below the flat may have been the baby’s mum.
According to research done by the Daily Mail, the name Mary Jane Walker stands out as a potential prime suspect.
She was aged 22, single and the only woman of child-bearing age living at the property – 67 Fore Bondgate – when the 1911 census was carried out.
She was listed as a “domestic” and “servant” – though until scientific evidence reveals a connection, Ms Walker’s link to the child is just speculation.
Ms Walker remained at the property for more than half a century and there is no record of her ever marrying.
At the time, it would’ve been considered shameful to fall pregnant while unmarried and in many circumstances women had no option but to hide pregnancies.
David said: “The last I heard was the reports about Mary Jane Walker maybe being the mother, in the Mail. I haven’t heard anything from the police.
“I hope they can find out who the baby was and what happened.”
The Sun has contacted Durham Police for more information.
If you have any information about 67 Fore Bondgate, phone 101 and quote incident number DHM-29072024-0127.
Do you know more? Email [email protected]
AlamyThe property dates to the Victorian period[/caption]
Forensics officers at the sceneNNP
Detectives from Durham Constabulary are now attempting to trace historic records for the propertyNNP Published: [#item_custom_pubDate]
