The infant, around a month old, was placed in the baby box at the San Giovanni Battista church in Bari, in the Puglia region. The alarm, supposed to warn the priest, did not sound.
The lifeless body of an infant was found Thursday, December 2, in an abandoned baby box in the San Giovanni Battista church in Bari, in the Italian region of Puglia, local media report.
The baby, around a month old, was found by a funeral home employee during preparations for a funeral, explains Corriere Della Serra.
“This morning, the funeral home employees were preparing everything for the planned funeral. A colleague wanted to show the group the crèche, by pure chance. Once the door opened, they found the child. I burst into tears after saw the scene and left,” a witness explained to the Italian daily.
The alarm did not go off
According to the parish priest, Antonio Ruccia, the alarm connected to the cradle did not go off. As soon as a baby is left in the crib, thermal sensors are supposed to be triggered automatically and the priest receives a notification on his cell phone. But the box door had not been closed properly, and the sensors therefore did not work.
The infant, a little boy, was wrapped in a quilt. Investigators must determine if he was already dead when he was placed in the box or if he was still alive. An autopsy must be carried out to find out the causes of the baby’s death.
As CNN recalls, baby boxes are present throughout Italy and were reintroduced in 2006, in churches and hospitals. This practice dates back to the 13th century, when women left their babies in a “ruota”, a wheel embedded in the wall of a church-affiliated children’s home, which allowed the mother to anonymously give her child to the institution.
