Cops launch criminal probe after ‘human placenta’ found by schoolboy, 15, in Southampton park
Police have launched a criminal investigation after a schoolboy found a human placenta in a city center park.
Officers were called to Holly Brook Park in Southampton on June 21 after a 15-year-old walking to school with two friends discovered the placenta.
1
Police have launched an investigation to find out what happened to the mother and baby in connection with the discovery.
Now, more than three months after the placenta was found, police are investigating the possibility of a crime.
Yesterday a 25-year-old woman from Southampton was arrested on suspicion of concealing the birth of a child as part of the latest investigation.
Due to urgent DNA investigations, she was excluded from the investigation and released from custody without further action being taken against her.
Detective Chief Inspector Elizabeth Pirie said: “We still have very serious concerns about the welfare of the mother and child in this case and these concerns have only increased over time as we have not yet identified them. “We recognize that the woman who gave birth felt unable to speak to us for some reason.
“We remain open to what happened and are continuing our work to understand the full circumstances of this discovery. Unfortunately, due to the time that has now passed, we assume that this is an investigation into unlawful concealment of the birth of a child.
“We have now made two arrests in the course of this investigation – we want to make it clear to people that we do not take these decisions lightly and both arrests were deemed necessary to advance our investigation.” Consider that a crime has been committed and get to the bottom of the incident so that we can ensure that both mother and child are safe. If this is not the case, we must initiate an investigation.
“We are now confident that the two women previously arrested have nothing to do with this discovery and have excluded them from the investigation. “We have only made arrests where absolutely necessary and have excluded a number of other people from our investigation , without any arrests being made. We aim to do this as quickly and easily as possible.
“I would like to thank people for their support over the last three months as we have worked through our investigation and urge you to continue to contact and co-operate with us if you believe you may have information that could help us.”
“We would ask anyone with information to contact us on 101 or via our website.”
Anyone with information is asked to call 101 quoting reference number 44230246419/Op Holdo.
