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Dead Babies From 1930s Found in LA Cellar

Two newborns found wrapped in newspapers, inside trunks

By Nick McMaster, Newser Staff

Posted Aug 18, 2010 3:50 PM CDT

(Newser) – The bodies of two infants hidden more than 70 years ago were discovered in an LA basement near MacArthur Park. The infants were newborns, found at the bottom of steamer trunks and wrapped in newspapers from the 1930s. "We got all excited because the first thing we found was a crystal dish," said one of the two women who found the first baby and called police.

"I saw something not very pleasant and very unusual," said the other woman. "It didn't have any shape to it. But it seemed like a dried-out body." Police have opened a "death investigation" but stopped short of calling it a homicide probe. The trunks had an array of other objects, including documents with a woman's name. "We'll put detectives on this case for the long term," the police chief tells the Los Angeles Times.

File photo. (Shutterstock)

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COMMENTS

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Showing 3 of 21 comments

NxBigmouthery

Aug 19, 2010 6:04 PM CDT

Even if this occurred in 1939 and the mother was 16 at the time...if she were alive, she'd be 87. That's about the youngest she could be. If the 'incident' were believed to have occurred 30 years earlier, it'd be considered alongs the lines of an interesting, if somewhat macabre, snapshot of 'turn of the century' life.

zangela

Aug 19, 2010 8:09 AM CDT

I don't understand why the assumption was automatically abortion. My first thought was that they were the poor woman's stillborn babies, and she was planning to bury them.

Naked_Emperor

Aug 19, 2010 12:57 AM CDT

"We'll put detectives on this case for the long term," the police chief tells the Los Angeles Times. why waste the resources, you guys are broke.

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Dead Babies From 1930s Found in LA Cellar

Two newborns found wrapped in newspapers, inside trunks

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crime • Los Angeles • infanticide

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