Murdered children who nobody knows

Murdered children who nobody knows

IT’S been 50 years since a dead baby boy with a stocking tied tightly around his neck was put in a mailbag and posted from Melbourne to Darwin.

It’s one of the most sickening cases to have taken place in Australia, yet the newborn’s identity and the circumstances surrounding his death remain a mystery.

The case has long gone cold but at least one man, retired detective Denver Marchant — who worked on the case as a young constable for the Northern Territory police — hasn’t been able to let it go.

Now based in Harvey Bay, Queensland, Mr Marchant, 74, is still haunted by the “the baby in the mailbag” and recalls the incident vividly.

On May 3, 1965, the package was sent to the old post office in Knuckey St, Darwin, from Russell St in Melbourne, with a return address of JF Barnes, 2 Woolridge Ave, Mentone, Victoria.

Darwin postal clerk John Polishuk — who has since died — noticed the parcel had “started to weep and emit a putrid smell” after addressee “J Anderson” failed to collect it from the post office.

Mr Polishuk opened the mailbag and made the gruesome discovery on May 11.

“He undid it then saw a child inside,” Mr Marchant said.

“He was horrified and called us.

“It badly affected John.”

The baby’s naked body was stuffed inside the mailbag without a note, clothing or any other items.

Those named on the parcel were never tracked down or proven to exist.

Mr Marchant was put in charge of forensics on the case and visited the baby in the morgue to take photos and be present for the post mortem.

He believed the infant was only a few hours old when it died.

“It struck me as very odd that someone would go to the trouble of posting a child,” he said.

“[It appeared] the child has been born, with the umbilical cord still there, taken a few breaths and to circumvent the life process, whoever had the child has knotted the stocking, wrapped it around the neck three or four times and ended the child’s life before posting it from Brunswick to Darwin,” he said.

“The neck was severely compressed from the stocking … I had a feeling that was done to stifle cries and ensure the child was dead.

“It was murder … but that’s all conjecture; there was no definite proof.”

The images taken by Mr Marchant were sent to lead investigators from Victoria Police, who did not yet respond to questions from news.com.au regarding the case.

Mr Marchant described the case as sickening.

“A doctor did the post mortem and it really got to him … I’ve been in on over 100 post mortems in my career and that’s the only time I’d seen a doctor physically ill [during the procedure],” he said.

“He was really crook.”

Mr Marchant said he didn’t recall if or where the baby — which was never given a name — was laid to rest.

“We just referred to him as ‘the baby in the mailbag’,” he said.

“This [case] has stuck with me because there are so many unanswered questions and no results.

“The person who sent the child might have thought the father lived in Darwin; maybe he was a tourist, there are so many variables.”

Still haunted by the case, Mr Marchant holds onto hope that the mystery may one day be solved.

“Someone out there is carrying one hell of a burden,” he said.

“Some people can’t handle that and when they’re getting closer to the end of their life on this earth, some feel they need to cough up what they know about something.

“I’d urge anyone with information to contact police.”

MURDERED CHILDREN WHO NOBODY KNOWS

While Mr Marchant believed the “baby in the mailbag” case was “a bizarre one-off”, it has drawn comparisons to the recent discovery of a little girl’s remains in a suitcase by a highway in South Australia, in June this year. Her identity and the circumstances surrounding her death also remain a mystery.

Believed to have been born in 2005 or 2006, she still does not have a name. In the words of the detective heading the case, she is “a little girl lost”.

Earlier this month in the USA, pieces of a little boy aged between two and three were pulled out of a lake in Garfield Park, not far from the centre of Chicago.

Police later released a sketch of the unidentified boy in the hope that someone would come forward with information about what happened to him. The case has not yet been solved.

Another child, known as Baby Doe, washed up in a plastic bag on Deer Island in Boston Harbour, USA, on June 25 this year. She was wrapped in a zebra-print blanket and dressed in polka dot leggings. She has since been identified as 2-year-old Bella Bond. On Friday, her mother’s boyfriend Michael McCarthy was charged with her murder, and Rachelle Bond was arrested as an accessory.