A baby boy who was found with twine looped and knotted round his neck and wrapped in a 116-year-old newspaper was unlawfully killed, a coroner has concluded
Crispin Oliver on Thursday said the child, known only as Baby Auckland, had been garrotted by an unknown person.
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child → find → person
He said it was an “unusual case, legally and evidentially”.
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it → say → ?
The whole story, he added, was “very sad and singular”.
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he → add → ?
Oliver said: “Clearly, this was a terrible thing that happened to a defenceless infant.
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that → say → infant
It happened in our community.
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It → happen → community
But it happened over a century ago, and it is heartwarming how the public and individuals in this community have stepped up to do the right thing by Baby Auckland.
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public → happen → Auckland
The inquest heard that the skeletal remains of the baby had been found during renovations on the second floor of a late 19th-century house in Bishop Auckland, County Durham, on 29 July 2024.
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remains → hear → July
They were found by the house owner, Peter Moody, while he was laying a new floor.
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he → find → floor
In a statement he said he had made the discovery when he lifted up a floorboard.
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he → say → floorboard
He contacted the county council, unsure of whether he needed to call the police.
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he → contact → police
DCI Mel Sutherland told the inquest he had been on duty in Bishop Auckland when he was alerted to the discovery of skeletal remains in a town centre house.
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he → tell → house
After they were confirmed as human, he supervised the sealing of the house to keep it forensically sterile, while a forensic anthropologist was contacted.
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anthropologist → confirm → it
That scientist, Dr Micol Zuppello, travelled up that evening and spent two days at the house investigating.
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scientist → travel → house
The baby’s skeleton was mostly complete, the inquest in Crook heard, bar a missing toe tip.
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inquest → hear → tip
The remains were partly mummified.
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remains → mummify → ?
Carbon dating could conclusively establish only that the baby died between the 17th century and 1955.
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baby → establish → century
A postmortem of the skeleton was carried out by Zupello and Dr Louise Mulcahy, a Home Office pathologist for north-east England based at the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle.
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postmortem → carry → Newcastle
Mulcahy said the baby had been 38-40 weeks, with no signs of traumatic injury, and had twine looped around his neck.
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twine → say → neck
She said it had been looped around the neck three times, knotted, and then looped again.
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it → say → neck
It was not possible to say, she added, if it had been tight or loose.
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it → say → ?
The medical cause of death, she said, was “unascertained”.
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she → say → death
The skeleton was too old to be able to confirm or refute the presence of natural disease, she said.
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she → confirm → disease
In the absence of soft tissue it was not possible, the inquest heard, to say if there had been any assault or trauma.
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inquest → hear → tissue
Equally, it was not possible to say with any certainty if the baby had been stillborn or not.
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baby → say → certainty
Oliver said police had “had to think laterally” during their investigation.
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police → say → investigation
He praised Sutherland for “leaving no stone unturned”.
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He → praise → stone
Sutherland described some of the techniques they had used to investigate further, including DNA testing.
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they → describe → testing
He said the newspaper was very brown, but articles could be seen.
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articles → say → ?
It was called The Umpire and dated June 1910.
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It → call → ?
Sutherland said that in 1911 census data, the building was described as dining rooms, meaning “a cafe-type establishment”.
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building → say → establishment
A public appeal was made for people who thought they might be related to come forward.
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they → make → ?
Two sisters came forward who believed they were related to a servant at the house, but DNA testing revealed no match.
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testing → come → match
During the whole investigation, Sutherland said, there had been “very little to go on”.
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Sutherland → say → investigation
Oliver asked if the twine might have been used for a religious artefact, but nothing like that had been found, Sutherland said.
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Sutherland → ask → that
A knot specialist could not be used, the inquest heard, because the nearest person was in the Netherlands and would have been too expensive for this type of investigation.
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person → use → investigation
Baby Auckland was laid to rest at Bishop Auckland cemetery in April this year, with professionals involved giving their services for free.
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professionals → lay → services
Sutherland said it had been two years of investigating, “challenging and frustrating at times, but heartwarming to see the send-off he got at the end”.
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he → say → end
The Aporia
