A newborn baby boy was tragically discovered dead inside a thermal cradle at the San Giovanni Battista Church in Bari, Italy. The baby was found by a funeral home director who noticed the door to the baby box wasn't closed properly. Police are investigating the circumstances surrounding the baby's death and will conduct an autopsy to determine the cause and time of death.
The baby was discovered at the San Giovanni Battista Church in Bari , Italy , on Jan. 2, according to local mediaBecca Longmire is a digital news writer-reporter at PEOPLE. She has been working at PEOPLE since 2024.
Her work has previously appeared on ET Canada, Metro and the Mail Online.A newborn has been found dead inside a "thermal cradle" left for abandoned babies at a church in Italy, according to reports. On the morning of Thursday, Jan. 2, the baby boy's lifeless body was discovered at the San Giovanni Battista Church in Bari in the Puglia region, per Italian news agency It's thought the person who left the baby didn't close the door to the room where the cradle was located, meaning the alarm wasn't triggered like it was meant to to let parish priest, Father Antonio Ruccia, know he was there, per the news agency.Ruccia did not immediately respond to PEOPLE's request for comment.The newborn was reportedly found by a local funeral home director who was passing the baby box door, which is located on the outside of the church for privacy purposes, per CNN. He was said to have spotted it hadn't been closed properly. An investigation is underway and Bari police have said it's unclear if the baby was already dead before being taken to the church, per Ansa. An autopsy will now be carried out on the baby to determine how and when he died, a police spokesperson told CNN.The church's baby box was said to have been successfully used in two cases prior to this one; once on July 19, 2020 and again on Dec. 23, 2023, perThe cradle was added at the church after a dead baby was discovered on a beach in the nearby town of Monopoli in 2015, Ansa reported. to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. Baby boxes were introduced in Italy in 2006 to"allow mothers to abandon their newborn babies with no questions asked," according to the National Institutes of Health "The boxes are the high tech, modern equivalent of the old medieval foundling wheels operated by orphanages in Padua from the 1400s until 1888," the NIH website reads. "The wheels were a circular wooden board half inside and half outside the orphanages run by nuns. Mothers placed their unwanted newborns on the board and rang a bell, and the nuns would spin the board to find the child," it adds.Tourist Killed in Shark Attack Near Popular Resort While His Wife Pleaded for Help from Shore 400 Passengers Onboard High-Speed Train Survive Near-Miss After Driver Jumps from Cab on Christmas Eve27-Year-Old Mom Among Victims of New Orleans Attack: 'I Don't Know How I Can Explain It' to Her Son, Grandma Says36-Year-Old Mother Begged Medical Staff to 'Not Let Me Die' but Died After Birth of Fifth Child Due to 'Basic Failures,' Report SaysDozens Dead After Plane Crashes on Christmas Day: ReportsTeen Brothers Who Went Missing During Duck Hunting Trip Now Presumed Dead, Authorities Say4-Year-Old Kindergarten Student Struck and Killed by Bus in School Parking Lot
Italy Bari Baby Box Abandoned Baby Death Investigation
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