Police to shut hunt for fogeys after three infants ‘present in plastic luggage’
WARNING, DISTRESSING CONTENT Three babies named Harry, Roman and Elsa were found abandoned in plastic bags in east London between 2017 and 2024, but their mother has never been traced
The search for the parents of three babies abandoned in plastic bags is set to be discontinued. Detectives have been tirelessly attempting to locate their mother for years after DNA tests confirmed that all three children were siblings.
Nearly two years since the last baby was discovered, police are contemplating closing the case. This follows a unique investigation that has led officers across the UK and overseas, using DNA analysis to reach out to potential relatives.
The infants were separately left in plastic bags in freezing temperatures over several years. The first child, named Harry by medical staff, was found swaddled in a white blanket in a bush in Plaistow, east London, in September 2017.
Two years later, in January 2019, another baby, Roman, who turned out to be his sibling, was discovered in the same area, wrapped in a white towel inside a shopping bag. In January 2024, a dog walker stumbled upon a third baby in a Boots shopping bag in temperatures as low as -4C.
She was christened Elsa, after the character in the Disney film Frozen, due to the icy conditions she was found in. All three siblings miraculously survived, reports the Mirror.
The infants were abandoned near the Greenway, a footpath in Newham built over a sewage pipe. Police suspect this location was chosen due to the absence of CCTV cameras.
Detective Inspector Jamie Humm from the Met said: “How can you have the most surveilled city in the world and someone drop three babies off without being identified? It was chosen, I would argue, as a fairly optimum location of making sure the babies were found relatively promptly whilst also giving the mum the most opportunity for a covert entrance and exit. It is a footpath – there are no shops, there was no dash cam footage from passing traffic, no doorbell camera.”
Scotland Yard collaborated closely with a geographic profiler from the National Crime Agency (NCA) to pinpoint the potential location of the mother to an area encompassing 400 houses. Detectives then scrutinised the properties and evaluated whether the occupant could be a parent based on a DNA profile of the mother they assembled from genetic analysis of the three children.
Met and NCA officers then embarked on the meticulous task of knocking on doors asking residents to volunteer DNA samples. Officers also compiled a comprehensive list of individuals who were potential relatives based on partial matches from records on the Police National Computer.
Detectives journeyed to Scotland, Wales, East Anglia, Birmingham and the Cotswolds, even tracing the family tree of deceased individuals.
But the search is now approaching its conclusion, with a review scheduled this month to determine whether to shut the case.
Detective Superintendent Lewis Basford, who heads the Metropolitan Police’s public protection unit, said: “I now think that the mother may have gone abroad. She may have been forced to leave the area; she may be being controlled. If someone comes forward with new intelligence we will investigate, but we have exhausted pretty much everything we can do.”
