ST. LOUIS, MO — After a St. Louis man’s mother died of cancer last week, he was shocked to discover a box in her freezer contained not a wedding cake, as he’d always been told, but the mummified remains of a newborn baby, according to the Post-Dispatch. Wrapped in a pink blanket, the infant’s skin and hair were intact after being in the freezer for more than three decades. Thirty-seven-year-old Adam Smith said said he “freaked out” and immediately called police.
“I’m finding out my mom wasn’t who I thought she was,” Smith told the paper. “Even as she was on her deathbed, she never told me what was in that box.”
Police are treating the discovery as a suspicious death and have ordered an autopsy. Smith said detectives questioned him for two hours Monday, and he provided them with a DNA sample to aid in the investigation.
Smith recently moved in with his mother, Barbara, after she was diagnosed with cancer in January, but said questions about what was in the box were always off limits.
Smith told the Post-Dispatch his mother had been married several times and had given birth to at least one stillborn child. The box had been in her freezer as long as he could remember and had occupied the freezers of at least four south city apartments over the years.
Smith told KSDK that his mother had always been secretive, sometimes disappearing for weeks without telling her family where she had been. After contacting his estranged father, Smith learned that his mother was pregnant on their first date, but the next time his father saw her, she wasn’t. And she sometimes spoke of her oldest child, Jennifer, and the age she would have been had she lived.
Smith suggested to the Post-Dispatch that his mother may have been responsible for the baby’s death, which is why she kept it secret for so long, adding that he’s confused and angry and just wants to know who the baby is.
Anyone with information should call police at 314-444-5371 or contact St. Louis Regional CrimeStoppers toll free at 1-866-371-TIPS (8477). Callers to CrimeStoppers can remain anonymous and may be eligible for a reward. Tips can also be submitted through the CrimeStoppers website or free app.
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