Detectives ‘step closer’ to solving 13-year mystery of baby boy found dead in Kirkham brook

Blackpool Gazette

Detectives believe they are a step closer to solving the 13-year mystery of a dead baby boy found in a brook in Kirkham.  Find the full story at: https://www.lep.co.uk/news/detectives-step-closer-to-solving-13-year-mystery-of-baby-boy-found-dead-in-kirkham-brook-5041406

Transcript

00:00Hello I'm live reporter Sean Gleaves and I'm currently standing next to Spenbrook

00:03in Kirkham where the body of a baby boy was tragically found 13 years ago in

00:07October 2011. Today on March 19th, Detective Chief Inspector Brian E. Midgley

00:13of the Major Crime Review Team confirmed the baby's dad had been identified

00:17thanks to advances in DNA technology. He is being supported by specially trained

00:21officers. Work is now ongoing to identify the mother with anyone who may have any

00:26information that might help their investigation urge to come forward.

00:29Hello and thank you for coming to Kirkham this morning. I'm Detective Chief

00:34Inspector Brian E. Midgley of Lancashire Police and today I am renewing our

00:38appeal for information in the hope we can solve the mystery of the tragic

00:43death of a newborn baby boy more than 13 years ago. His body was sadly found in

00:49Spenbrook here in Kirkham on Saturday October the 1st 2011. A thorough

00:56investigation was carried out but unfortunately his parents were never

01:00identified. We are now reinvestigating his death. This is such a sad case and it

01:08had a huge impact on the community here in Kirkham. A major part of our

01:13investigation is trying to find out who the baby's boy's mum is. We ask that

01:19anyone who has any information which could help us find the mum, however small

01:24that piece of information might be, to come forward and speak to us. We believe

01:30that somebody knows who she is and what happened back in 2011. You might not have

01:36wanted to come forward back then but with the passage of time it will feel

01:40right to do so now. Our specially trained officers will be there to support you.

01:46We've made progress, we have made progress as the baby boy's dad has now

01:51been traced thanks to advances in DNA technology. The dad who lived in

01:57Blackpool has been assisting with this investigation but we have still so far

02:02been unable to identify baby's mum. These scientific developments should also help

02:08us to confirm who his mum is. If you have any information which you think could

02:13help us please contact my team on 101. Yep so back on the 1st of October 2011 a

02:20dog walker out in this field found sadly a baby boy who was in the brook.

02:26Within Lancashire Police within the last 18 months we've set up a cold case major

02:31crime review team and this is the one of the priority investigations that we

02:35would like to get answers for. We have a small and dedicated team who are

02:39working through any unresolved investigations within Lancashire Police

02:43that have had a significant impact on the community. As you imagine it would

02:47be shock and he is being supported by specialist officers and he's working

02:52closely with our team and helping us as much as he can. And I imagine some people

02:55have the question of if you know who the dad is how do you not know who the mum

02:59is? What would you say to that? I don't think we should ask too many questions

03:03around that and we are doing our best to try and identify who mum is but today

03:07I'm really appealing to people to come forward with any information they might

03:12have that would assist us in identifying who mum is. As you know forensic science

03:16and DNA technology has advanced drastically in the last 13 years which

03:21has helped us to identify who dad is and we're hoping that that same science

03:25will eventually lead us to who mum is but we need a sample of her DNA to be

03:30able to compare it to the baby's. I think for everybody they want answers we've

03:35got a quiet community here where this did have a significant impact and it

03:39certainly impacted the officers who worked on the investigation back in 2011

03:43and my team now and we were really striving to find answers. We want to be

03:48able to give this baby an identity and try and understand how he came to be

03:52found in such tragic circumstances. I'm really urging anybody who might have any

03:57information that could assist us to please come forward. Are you a friend of

04:01mum? Did you have a friend you had concerns for who may have been pregnant

04:04but never came home with a child? Were you a health professional or a social

04:09worker who might have had concerns about one of your clients but for whatever

04:13reason couldn't come forward and speak to our team back in 2011? Please come

04:18forward now even if you think it's just something really small it could be

04:22really significant.

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