Baby boy found dead wrapped in newspaper from 1910 is laid to rest

A baby boy whose skeletal remains were found wrapped in a 1910 newspaper and with twine around his neck has, finally, been laid to rest. The child has become known as Baby Auckland after he was found at a property in the centre of Bishop Auckland, County Durham. He was discovered under floorboards by a builder working on a Victorian house in July 2024. More than a century after his death, the mystery child was buried at a gentle and moving service at Bishop Auckland town cemetery. Despite a detailed investigation, police have been unable to identify the baby or establish how he died, a fact that was clearly of some sadness to DCI Mel Sutherland who led the investigation and gave a tribute at the service. “It is an emotional day,” he said. “It has been quite a long process. It was a really lovely service.” He recalled the early stages of the case, how it took two or three days to even get the baby out of the house. “We used a forensic anthropologist to kind of excavate under the floorboards to make sure that we got as much of baby as possible to be fully intact. And we did. I think the only part we didn’t was a tiny little toe bone.” The funeral service for Baby Auckland. Photograph: Raoul Dixon/North News/North News & Pictures Ltd The baby was then taken to the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle where a postmortem examination was carried out. …