Monday, December 30, shortly before 1 p.m., a jogger who was running on the greenway laid out along the Roanne-Digoin canal made the macabre discovery. Intrigued by a trash bag left on the bank, the witness then noticed the presence of the lifeless body of a young child inside.
The child was of a size and weight compatible with full-term birth and had no malformations indicating that he was not viable.
After the first observations on the scene by the Roanne police services, and a search of the canal by a crew of fire brigade divers, an autopsy of the remains was scheduled at the Saint-Etienne medico-legal institute, this Tuesday December 31.
“The body hidden in the bag and submerged”
This made it possible to determine several things, starting with the sex of the infant: it was a little boy, and not a little girl, as had first been thought. But above all that he was “of a size and weight compatible with a full-term birth” and that he “did not present any malformation indicating that he was not born viable”, indicates the Roanne Prosecutor's Office in a press release this Thursday January 2. It was also established that “the body had been hidden in the bag and submerged.”
“In order to implement the necessary means to identify the child victim, as well as to determine the circumstances and responsibilities involved in his death,” continues the public prosecutor of Roanne Xavier Laurent, the investigation is now open for murder of a minor under 15 years old. This is entrusted to the Interdepartmental Directorate of the National Police (DIPN) of the Loire.
Call for witnesses
“The circumstances of the discovery of the body are such as to presume that people other than the witness who reported the facts were able to observe the presence of the body of the child or at least the black bag in which it was found,” believes the Roanne Public Prosecutor's Office, which is calling for witnesses. All people with information and who have not yet reported to the police are invited to contact the investigation service: by telephone at 04.77.93.52.98 or by email at [email protected].
