Mummified remains of babies found wrapped in 1930s newspapers

Los Angeles - A couple of women cleaning out the basement of a Los Angeles apartment building were shocked when they unwrapped a couple of parcels wrapped in old newspapers and discovered the mummified remains of two babies.

Gloria Gomez, the building manager, and her friend Yiming Xing found three large trunks in the basement. Two were empty but the third –which they had to break the lock to open- contained items including a crystal bowl, book and two doctor’s satchels. There were bundles wrapped in 1930s copies of the Los Angeles Times inside the satchels. When the women pulled away the paper they discovered the mummified remains of two babies. Investigators will not know until after tests are completed whether the babies died during the 1930s or if the deaths took place later and they were wrapped in old newspapers. The Los Angeles Times reported that officials said one of the babies appeared to be premature and the other looked like a newborn. Xing, who pulled the first bundle from a satchel, told the Los Angeles Times that the parcel was so light she thought at first that it might be silk. When she unwrapped it she realized that it had been something which had once been alive. "I didn't know if it was a human," she said. "It looked like a baby, but it didn't have any shape to it." It is believed that the trunk belonged to someone named Jean M. Barrie. It contained postcards from places such as Korea and South America, black-and-white photographs, a ticket stub from the closing ceremonies of the 1932 Olympics at the L.A. Coliseum, medical test forms, a beaded purse, and a membership certificate for the Peter Pan Woodland Club. "We'll put detectives on this case for the long term," the Los Angeles Times quoted LAPD Chief Charlie Beck as saying. "We'll try to reconstruct the circumstances based on what the coroner tells us, based on the history of the residence and based on science. We have many more tools and technology available to us than before, which may allow for identification of the victims and closure to any family members."