The remains of a newborn infant recovered at a Bronx Department of Environmental Protection plant have yet to be identified two years after the grisly discovery, officials said Friday.
Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clarke put out a renewed plea for information in the cold case to “resolve the undignified disposal” of the remains found on Aug. 31, 2022.
Workers at the Hunts Point Water Treatment Control Plant on Ryawa Ave. in Hunts Point found one of the infant’s legs on a conveyor belt where recyclables are sorted about 9 a.m., police said. A second leg was found in the same area the next day.
The city’s Medical Examiner determined that both legs were human and belonged to the same baby girl. It’s believed the child had just been born when she died. The rest of her body was never found.
Someone apparently dismembered the body and threw some of the remains in the sewer. The water plant processes sewage from 10 different zip codes in the Bronx, officials said.
DNA from the remains was recovered, but investigators haven’t been able to compare it to any criminal and federal databases because the infant hasn’t been declared missing.
Federally funded databases cannot accept the infant’s DNA profile because her death has not been ruled a homicide and without the rest of the body, investigators cannot figure out how she died, cops said.
Anyone with information about the infant’s death is urged to call NYPD Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS, the 41st Precinct Detective Squad at (718) 542-5313 or the Bronx Homicide Squad at (718) 378-8791. All calls will be kept confidential.