Man Discovers Baby Inside Box in Late Mother's Freezer
A St. Louis man cleaning out the freezer in his dead mother’s apartment found a box he thought might contain some treasured keepsake. It did, but not one he expected to find.
“It turns out it was a baby,” Adam Smith told KSDK. The remains were wrapped in pink fleece, he said.
“I’m 37 and it has been in [the] freezer for 37 years and I was always told it was a wedding cake top,” said Smith, who had moved in with his mom to care for her after she was stricken with cancer.
“It still had skin hair and everything it was mummified,” he said. “After that, I freaked out, put it in the box and called police right away.”
EXCLUSIVE: A disturbing discovery in south St. Louis. Police are investigating the death of a baby. But tonight, we get more details from a man who found the baby wrapped in a pink blanket in his mom’s freezer. Catch the full story at 6 on @ksdknews. pic.twitter.com/juSKoL9SQT
— Justina Coronel (@JustinaCoronel) July 29, 2019
Police have opened an investigation into the baby’s death.
Smith said he had often asked his mother, Barbara Smith, about the box.
“I’ve asked her several times, it was either a no-no conversation or blew me off. My mom has always been secretive about things about life,” he said.
Smith gave police a DNA sample in case the remains are those of a sibling.
“Even as she was on her deathbed, she never told me what was in that box,” he told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “That’s what makes me think maybe she did something to this baby and didn’t want to tell anyone because she was afraid she would get in trouble.”
Adam Smith said he has learned more about his mother than he ever wanted to know.
“I’m finding out my mom wasn’t who I thought she was,” he said, explaining he has been told by family members his mother had several marriages and once had twins — one of whom was stillborn, while the other was given up for adoption.
“She would disappear for months at a time and not contact anyone from the family,” he said.
Adam Smith said his father, from whom he has been estranged, added a piece to the puzzle.
“He told me my mom was pregnant on their first date and that the next time he saw her, she wasn’t,” Adam Smith said.
He also remembered a conversation from when he was 7 or 8 years old and his mother seemed sad.
“All I can remember is that she told me, ‘My oldest child would have been 21 today,’” he said. “And that her name was ‘Jennifer.’”
He estimated that sibling would be 46 or 47 today.
“That’s how long, I’m assuming it is my sister, been in a box in a freezer for this long,” Smith KSDK, adding that no matter where his mother moved over the years, the box always stayed in her freezer.
Smith is now anxious to understand the mystery life threw at him.
“I’m more confused, angry,” he said. “I just want to find closure, I want to find more answers.”
He is also afraid to keep going through his mother’s things.
“I picked up a sock and felt something in it,” he said.
“But it was just cigarettes she was hiding from me.”
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