Plain City investigators are trying to find out what happened after the body of a female infant was discovered in the back of a garbage truck.
Police Chief Dale McKee said a refuse collector working in the 100 block of Bluestem Lane found the body Thursday afternoon while on a route in the Darby Fields housing development south of the village.
“He’s the one who called 911. He found the baby in the back of the truck. He said he looked in and couldn’t see all of it. He wasn’t sure if it was even real,” said McKee. “Once we responded, emergency personnel were able to identify it as an actual human baby.”
Officers with the Plain City Division of Police responded as well as members of the Pleasant Valley Joint Fire District.
The call came in at 2:19 p.m. Thursday, according to a release from the police department. EMS personnel on scene then pronounced the baby dead at 2:33 p.m.
“We secured the waste management vehicle afterwards and began looking through it, but everything in there is contaminated, it’s all trash,” McKee said.
He added when officers arrived, they also called the Madison County Coroner’s Office and the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation.
“’We don’t know any of the circumstances or what led to this, but babies just don’t end up in the garbage,” he said. “So we are now actively investigating this case now.”
McKee traveled to Dayton early Friday morning with investigators to the Montgomery County Medical Examiner’s Office where the body was transported.
Medical examiners were not immediately able to pinpoint a cause of death, but said the infant still had an umbilical cord attached to the stomach.
McKee said investigators are following all leads and since the garbage truck is equipped with cameras, investigators are currently combing through video files from the vehicle and footage collected from cameras at houses nearby.
“Our office is fielding many tips and we are reviewing video from numerous sources in an attempt to locate evidence or witnesses regarding the infant being placed into the trashcan,” an update to the initial press release said. “Our office has submitted evidence obtained during the autopsy to the Bureau of Criminal Investigation Laboratory for DNA analysis.”
McKee said, given the state of the infant and the frequency the workers compact the collected garbage, he’s confident the body had not been in the truck for more than minutes, which may narrow down the starting location.
McKee said he’s familiar with handling difficult cases, but admitted this one is particularly difficult.
“This kind of stuff usually doesn’t happen in Plain City. I’ve seen deceased infants before. We’ve had deaths from natural causes and years ago, we even had a father that had killed his infant child. He’s still facing time, but it’s nothing like this,” McKee said. “This is the first time in my 27 years I’ve ever seen something like this. It’s the kind of thing that makes you feel like you should’ve retired a month ago.”
McKee stressed that if anyone is ever in this crisis and resources aren’t know, the infant can be brought to the police or fire department.
“Right now, I have two goals: find out who did this and why. And make sure this baby gets a proper burial,” he said. “I don’t know what happened or why this happened, but I want to make sure this baby is buried properly and has at least something good happen after what happened to it.”
Officials are asking the public to submit any information that could help this case to the police department.
“Anyone with information about this case, especially information about anyone who is postpartum and the location of the baby is unknown, is encouraged to contact the Plain City Division of Police at 614-873-2921,” the release said. “At this time, we are focused on identifying the infant and determining what led to the infant’s death, but we are also concerned about the health of the mother due to the strong potential that the baby was born without professional healthcare assistance.”