DNA testing has revealed that an abandoned baby girl, found in a shopping bag in freezing conditions earlier this year, shares the same parents as two other abandoned newborns.
Judge Carol Atkinson confirmed that the infant, later named Baby Elsa, has two siblings who were also discovered alone in 2017 and 2019 in London. The children were found over a seven-year period, just miles apart from each other, according to The Mirror.
The other infant, Roman, was also found in a shopping bag, while the first baby, dubbed Harry, was discovered wrapped in a blanket.
Despite these shocking discoveries, police have been unable to identify the parents, leading to an appeal from the Met. An update was announced at East London Family Court on Monday, when the judge confirmed the news could be published.
Here we detail the circumstances of each sibling, all found in similar conditions, reports the Daily Record.
Baby Elsa was discovered in freezing temperatures in East Ham on the evening of January 18 this year. It’s believed she was less than an hour old when a dog walker found her, swaddled in a towel in a reusable shopping bag with her umbilical cord still attached.
The baby girl was discovered at the juncture of Greenway and High Street South. Hospital staff affectionately named her Elsa, after the character from Disney’s ‘Frozen’, reflecting the icy conditions she was found in.
At the time, the Metropolitan Police suggested it was “highly likely” that Elsa was born following a “concealed pregnancy”.
Elsa’s mother was seen entering Greenway through the High Street South entry around 8.45pm on January 18, about half an hour before the baby girl was located.
In a plea for Elsa’s mother to surface back in January, Chief Superintendent Simon Crick, head of Newham police force, encouraged anyone with relevant information to get in touch immediately. According to the BBC, doctors took three hours to record Elsa’s frigid temperature, with confirmation from the Met Office that mercury readings plunged to as low as minus 4C on that night.
In April, representatives for Newham London Borough Council explained to the court that Elsa’s future care couldn’t be determined due to ongoing probes into identifying her parents. A hearing is set to take place at a later date.
Another baby boy, Roman, experienced a similar fate just under five years earlier to Elsa’s discovery. The police were summoned to a park spot near Roman Road and Saxon Road in East Ham approximately 10.15pm on January 30, 2019.
The force reported that when the baby was discovered, she was wrapped in a white towel inside a shopping bag placed beside a bench in a children’s playpark. There was no effort to conceal her.
Rima Zvaliauskas, who found her while walking her dog, expressed to the BBC in 2019 that she was “shocked and stressed” upon hearing noises from the bag.
The child, referred to here as Roman, which is not her real name, has been adopted since then.
In another case, Baby Harry was found swaddled in a white blanket and left alone in a park on September 17, 2017. Named Harry by the hospital staff, he was found in an area off Balaam Street in Plaistow, East London.
After receiving care at a hospital, Harry was discharged and has also been adopted.