Murder case is reopened
Thursday 12th March 2009, 3:00PM GMT.
DETECTIVES have reopened a 27-year-old murder investigation which involved the strangled body of a baby girl being washed up on an English beach wrapped in a Jersey carrier bag.
Officers from Dorset police have travelled to the Island in an attempt to trace the mother of the baby, who they believe may live here and may have killed the child before throwing her from a ferry travelling from Jersey to Weymouth. The case was known as the ‘baby on the beach’ after the little girl, who was just hours or days old, was washed up on the beach near Weymouth pier on 15 October 1981 by three men out metal-detecting.
Retired UK detective Phil James, who is reviewing unsolved cases for Dorset police and is in the Island until later today, is confident that the case can finally be solved and is appealing to Islanders for help. He wants the parents, who could include a teenage mother who would now be in her mid-forties and could still be living in Jersey, to get in touch with him.
Pictured: Dorset crime review officer Phil James on Weymouth beach, where the baby’s body was found
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“He wants the parents, who could include a teenage mother who would now be in her mid-forties and could still be living in Jersey, to get in touch with him.”
You’d think if they wanted to do that they would have done it over 20 years ago surely?
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The person can only be identified if her DNA is on file, which is unlikely. It has been suggested that perhaps this baby belonged to a distraught young girl who disposed of it on the ferry as she didn’t want her family to know about the pregnancy and at that time abortion was illegal in Jersey.
If this is true then I would think she has suffered enough and does not need this dragging up. I fail to see who benefits from this investigation as it is not a murder investigation in the normal sense.
Leave her alone and let it rest.
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Increadably sad however I agree with Lula what do you hope to achive after so long. If you want to look at Cold Case files open the Alan Norton case and see what worms can be found !!
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Alan Norton’s case is not really a ‘cold case’ but I agree it should be revisited.
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i know its sad but the fact is the baby was strangled?! Or is it acceptable to murder a baby because you cant cope?! She could have left her on someone doorstep!! She didnt have to kill her!
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Lula 1, Keith 2, Kate 3.
This baby was strangled, are you seriosly saying we should condone “murder”
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‘was washed up on the beach near Weymouth pier on 15 October 1981 by three men out metal-detecting.’
Hang on, surely ‘found’ and not ‘washed-up’ should be the verb in that sentence? Am I right?
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I was pointing out that nobody is going to step forward and that’s the only way the police will solve the case. Furthermore in the days when abortion was illegal what else was a young girl supposed to do if she was raped, assaulted or simply taken advantage of? Her parents would disown her, she’d never get a chance of marriage or work both mother and daughter would be dead in a matter of weeks.
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fair enough that she may have had these terrible things happen to her but she did a terrible thing by strangling her baby!!
As i said before she could have left it where some one could have found her, not strangle her!!
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Sorry the Alan Norton case wasn’t a Cold Case but it certainly should be and it is about time it is was opened a man served 30 years could have been out on parol much earlier had he admitted to the crime but he never did.He always claimed not guilty to this day.Conviction without any evidence. Sorry for going off the artical in hand but although I don’t know the Norton’s I know the case and it dosen’t ring true at all.
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