Dead baby discovered in baby hatch - was it infanticide?

Bari (Italy) - Simply tragic. A dead baby was discovered in a baby hatch in Italy . The background raises many questions.

When the dead baby was found, it was still in the baby flap, wrapped in a romper suit. But the flap was still open. The newborn had no chance.

This is what happened on January 2 in the southern Italian city of Bari. This was reported by the news agency ANSA.

According to the report, an unknown person placed the baby boy, who was estimated to be one month old and weighed just under 4,200 grams, in the baby hatch at the church of San Giovanni Battista, which was actually heated, and disappeared.

"My cell phone connected to the cradle did not ring," priest Don Antonio Ruccia told ANSA.

According to all that is known, the dead child was only discovered hours later. A funeral director wanted to show an employee the baby hatch. When he opened it, he was shocked.

The little one "is only one month old and when I opened the door, I noticed that he was covered by a hood and wasn't moving: I immediately understood what had happened," said the experienced mortician.

"I picked him up and saw him motionless in that military patterned onesie, it made me so sad."

He assumes that the baby must have been lying in the heated crib for 24 to 48 hours.

Meanwhile, priest Don Antonio Ruccia harbors a grave suspicion.

"Someone 'played' with the life of a child. In my opinion, it was already dead: if it had still been alive, the door would not have been left open, it would have been closed again and the notification would have been triggered immediately," the priest told the Avvenire portal.

The priest has harsh words: "It's infanticide, I'm shocked." He suspects that the mother simply wanted to save the funeral costs.

The baby hatch is currently being examined by experts for technical defects. The results of the autopsy are still pending.