The autopsy carried out on Monday did not find any obvious cause of death and no further information was revealed about the child’s age or how long the body had been buried in the sand.
The search also continues for the baby’s parents with police continuing to express grave concerns for the child’s mother.
The grim beach discovery by two boys, aged six and seven, on Sunday comes only a week after one mother abandoned her newborn for six days in a stormwater drain in Sydney’s West.
The child in the drain was eventually rescued by a group of cyclists who heard the child’s screams while riding past.
These recent abandonment cases have sparked fresh debate about baby hatches being implemented in Australia where mothers can leave newborns anonymously.
Similar baby hatch strategies have been implemented in countries like China and Germany and Australian Medical Association president Andrew Pesce told AAP it seems like a viable option to stop babies being abandoned dangerously.
“I see that it’s a solution that is not a high-tech expensive solution,” Pesce said.
“I think it’s part of a whole system of things – it can’t be the only solution to this problem,” he added.
Earlier:
Two young boys, aged six and seven, made the gruesome discovery of a baby’s body that had been buried in a shallow grave at Maroubra beach.
The two local nippers were reportedly playing in the sand on Sunday morning when they found the badly decomposed body of a naked infant 30 centimetres below the sand.
Police were called to the beach just after 10am and established a crime scene with specialist forensic officers inspecting the find but due to the state of decomposition they could not determine the gender or age of the remains or how long they had been there.
Eastern Beaches Inspector Andrew Holland told reporters at a press conference that the depth and position which the baby’s body was found indicated the remains had been deliberately buried.
Police are urging the parents of the deceased child to come forward and have expressed particular concerns about the wellbeing of the child’s mother.
Investigators have contacted hospitals to try and track down any details of babies in the area that have not been accounted for. Police said a post mortem examination will be conducted to establish the cause of the child’s death.
The father of the two boys who found the baby’s body tried to relieve the children by saying they had found the body of a dead dog. Inspector Holland said that the children were receiving counselling.
The grisly beach discovery comes just a week after a group of cyclists rescued a baby from a roadside drain in Sydney’s west where the infant had been abandoned for six days.
That child’s mother came forward to police and was charged with attempted murder.
Anyone with information is urged to call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or use the Crime Stoppers online reporting page.
