The body of the newborn was discovered in a chest freezer in a storage room in Allariz (Ourense) and may have been there for over 20 years, according to local newspaper 'La Región'.
The Civil Guard is investigating after the body of a baby was found inside a chest freezer in a storage room at a block of flats in Allariz, in the Ourense province of north-west Spain.
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According to the local newspaper La Región, the discovery was made last Monday by a woman who was going through the belongings of her recently deceased mother.
The freezer was in a storage room in the building’s garage area. When she opened it, she found the body of the new-born.
Preliminary data indicate that the baby is believed to ha e been born after a pregnancy of between 32 and 34 weeks and is thought to have breathed. However, it will be the autopsy carried out by the Galician Institute of Legal Medicine that will clarify the circumstances and causes of death.
Identity of the baby and circumstances of the death under investigation
Investigators have already taken statements from several people close to the former owner and have sent DNA samples to a laboratory in Madrid in an attempt to identify the baby's biological parents.
According to "La Región", investigators are also not ruling out that the death may have occurred elsewhere in the province and that the body was later moved to Allariz inside the freezer itself.
The investigation remains open and is being conducted under judicial secrecy, ordered by the court in Ourense in charge of the case. Officers are trying to determine when and how the baby died and to clarify how the body ended up hidden in the chest freezer.