Over the past seven years, three kids were left in east London wrapped in shopping bags and blankets. Police are now looking for their parents.
The baby Elsa was found alone and cold in a park in January. On Monday, a court confirmed that she is related to two other babies born shortly before her. Roman and Harry, Elsa’s sister and brother, were thrown away nearby in 2017 and 2019. They were named in local media under fake names.
According to PA Media, all three babies were found living and taken care of immediately. The two oldest have since been adopted.
But the court’s decision on Monday sheds light on a scary trend in the London borough of Newham.
In September 2017, Harry was found in a small park wrapped in a blanket. Police asked the mother to come forward, but she never did.
After a year and a half, Roman was found in a nearby park, wrapped in a blanket and a shopping bag. The man who found the child and called the cops told the BBC in 2019: “The child had a frosty forehead… it started snowing soon after.”
In January of this year, Elsa was found not far from the same spot but on foot. A dog walker found her just after 9 p.m., wrapped in blankets.
“They thought quickly and kept the baby girl warm until London Ambulance Service paramedics arrived. They checked her out and then took her to the hospital,” Chief Superintendent Simon Crick said in a statement.
“I’m thankful for the people who stayed at the scene to talk to police and medics; your actions helped save the baby’s life,” Crick said.
She was left in very cold January weather with her sister Roman. When asked at the time, the Metropolitan Police said it was “highly likely” that Elsa was born after a “concealed pregnancy.”
Police asked for help identifying “a woman seen wearing a large dark coat with a light-colored scarf or hood around her neck” and a backpack on her back, just before the baby was found, a week after Elsa was found.
Police said that they still think she might know important things about how Elsa got to where she was found.
DNA tests showed that all three babies are connected.
The three Black children were siblings, which the police knew. On Monday, a judge decided that reporting restrictions, which limit what can be said about children who are victims of crimes, could be lifted, letting the media post details.
The judge was reported by PA Media as saying, “The abandonment of a baby in this country is a very, very rare event. There are years when no children are abandoned, and because of that, the story of the abandoning of a child is of public interest.”