The skeleton of the child was discovered with twine around its neck, with the remains wrapped in a newspaper dated 1910 (Picture: Owen Humphreys/PA Wire)
Police are searching for relatives of a baby hidden under floorboards over a century ago.
The baby’s body was discovered in Fore Bondgate, one of the oldest streets in Bishop Auckland, last month.
They were wrapped in a newspaper thought to be 114 years old, making the child likely older than 100 years.
Investigators believe that the death of the baby, whose gender has yet to be determined, was likely of a suspicious nature.
Det Ch Insp Mel Sutherland said it would take at least eight weeks for radiocarbon dating analysis to determine exactly when the baby died.
The skeleton of the child was discovered with twine around its neck.
The bid was discovered in a disused building in Fore Bondgate, Bishop Auckland. (Pictures: Owen Humphreys/PA Wire)
Mr Sutherland said the key to solving the mystery was to rely on scientific evidence. (Picture: Owen Humphreys/PA Wire)
A forensic anthropologist analysed the child’s bones and the development of its teeth, concluding it was full-term at 40 weeks.
Mr Sutherland said the key to solving the mystery was to rely on scientific evidence.
He said: ‘Because of the length of time since the baby was concealed, we cannot rely on our usual lines of inquiry such as CCTV footage, house-to-house, witnesses and digital footprints.’
Mr Sutherland said his team are trawling to records from the early 1900s, in the hope they might help identify some surviving family members and long-lost relatives, but he warned it was also possible that no living family members would be tracked.
The property where the baby was found dates to the Victorian period and at one stage housed a church-run mother-and-baby unit. However, it is believed the baby was concealed before the unit was set up.
Mr Sutherland added: ‘I think we will get a good picture of who was in the house at the time, what the house was used for and identify some family members.’
‘It’s really important to me that that story is told and that we then give the baby a full and dignified funeral,’ he concluded.
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