Oct. 16, 2001 – St. Thomas police have launched an investigation into the death of a male infant whose body was found in the hamper of his grandmother’s house early Tuesday morning.
Deputy Police Chief Theodore Carty said the case unfolded around 11 p.m. Monday when a 17-year-old, the mother of the infant, was taken to the Roy L. Schneider Hospital after her mother observed a quantity of blood in their apartment. The teen's mother told authorities she had grown concerned for her daughter, who earlier in the night had complained of not feeling well.
A few hours later, while cleaning the bathroom, the teen's mother found the baby’s body.
"Police were summoned to the hospital when the body was brought there," Carty said.
Medical Examiner Francisco Landron, who performed an autopsy on the body late Tuesday afternoon, said the child was "born alive but died sometime late Monday night or early Tuesday morning." Landron said the autopsy determined that the child suffocated. He said the case would be classified as "murder, whether because of neglect or otherwise."
A statement from police said only that the "case is under investigation."
The death of the boy brings to 17 the number of homicides in the territory this year, nine on St. Thomas and eight on St. Croix. Of the homicides on St. Thomas, none have been solved; five of the eight on St. Croix have been cleared by arrests.
