Body of newborn baby found in warehouse
BBCAn appeal to urgently help find the mother of a newborn baby found dead in a warehouse has been issued by police.
The body of the little girl was discovered on Thursday within an industrial waste pile, which had been transported by a private waste operator to a site in Rowley Regis, in the Black Country.
West Midlands Police said it was carrying out forensic examinations to identify the girl and establish how she died.
"While we don't yet know what has happened, what we do know is that there must be a mother out there who is in real need of help − and she is our absolute priority at the moment," Det Ch Insp Kylie Westlake, of the force, said.
"I really want to speak to her to make sure she's okay, and to ensure that she can get the help that she urgently needs."
The force said it believed the baby was unknowingly transported to the industrial site on Station Road on Wednesday before the discovery by a member of staff just before noon the day after.
Officers have been checking CCTV and speaking to hospitals in order to find the mother.
Det Insp Sarah West confirmed the case was not being treated as a murder investigation, adding "we hope some more information becomes clearer once we've done the forensics".
"Although the location is in Rowley Regis, this particular depot services a wide area which includes West Mercia, West Midlands Warwickshire and Staffordshire," she explained.
"So it's a wide area they collect the refuse from."
She said: "We just want to understand the circumstances and speak to [the mother] to make sure that she's safe and well, both a medical perspective and a welfare perspective".
The investigation was "very sad and tragic for all concerned," she said. "Sadly, this is our role to make sure we can do the investigation, understand what's happened and make sure the mum is safe and well."
The officer said it would be a "challenge" to exactly date when the baby arrived at the warehouse, "obviously heat is a factor," she said.
"There's a large volume of trucks that are coming and going servicing a wide area, so there are challenges to developing a timeline from when the baby's arrived and when death occurred."
Officers have been checking CCTV and speaking to hospitals in order to find the mother.
The business was not being linked to the death, it added, and asked for anyone with information to submit information to a major incident public portal.
Any information it received would be treated sensitively, it added.
Follow BBC Birmingham on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
