New Light Shed on Mummified Baby Mystery

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Back in September, 1925, Rita Rich was a wee 10 year old living with her father, Charles, who was a barber, her aunt Della and uncle Wesley at the house at 29 Kintyre in Toronto, Canada. Her childhood memories at Kintyre are happy ones. Her mother had died from the Spanish Influenza in 1918, when she was three years old and her father had brought her to Toronto to save her from the epidemic. Her father never remarried. She once asked him if he won't remarry and he said to her, "I had perfection."

Charles kept his wife's memory alive. He kept a trunk of her belongings in the attic and every year he would take Rita up to it and remove one item from the trunk. Says Rita, "He would take one thing out of it and give to me and say, 'This is from your mother to wish you a happy birthday,'" Rich recalled. "The last thing he gave me, when I was 16, was a ring with five pearls."

Life at 29 Kintyre was simple and peaceful. Of all the characters living at this address none fit the mold of a murderer. Rita's aunt Della was infertile so the baby could not have been hers. The boarder, George Turner, Rita's dad had brought home from the barber shop was a gentleman. He did not have illicit affairs, and he was the kind of man who would marry a woman if he got her 'knocked up.'

Rita, now in her 90s and living in New York, recalled an aunt Alla Mae, a sister of Della's who visited them from New York City. Alla Mae was newly divorced from husband number one and was into the city's nightlife. She was a glamorous woman who dated band leaders from the time and - then as Rita was reminiscing, a single memory, a mundane one at that, flitted across her mind and she said, "She was at the house and moving furniture. I could hear my Aunt Della say: 'Don't do that, or you will lose this baby.' It was a quick blink of an eye that crossed my mind. Where did that come from? How did I remember that? This thing that crossed my mind. It was as if Alla Mae didn't want the baby."

Rita Rich today image:33788:0::0

The coroner's report indicates no foul play. The baby died of natural causes. A local group that provides proper burial for babies/children who've met similar fate is poised to take over the body once the coroner's office is finished with it's investigations.

In the mean time Rita Rich has offered to donate DNA to help identify the baby's biological family. Some of the Russells still live in Ontario and they too are interested in knowing if this little baby should be in the family's burial plot.

As for the young father who stumbled upon this little mysterious bundle, he is relieved to know that the baby was not murdered. He has opened a trust account at Canada Trust to pay for a memorial . "We'll do a memorial on the street, buy a tree with edible fruit, a plaque, and the city will buy a bench," said Kinghorn.

Bob Kinghorn, Renovator found mummified baby image:33790:0::0

He says he is amazed at how much his discovery affected him. "When I called and they told me it was a natural death, no murder, I felt better. Then the Chinese couple from across the street came over and said: 'You released that baby from prison.' That felt good."

Credits: All photos courtesy of CBC, except for the old photo. That is courtesy of the Russell family to CBC.