Abandoned baby found in shopping bag is sister of two other dumped newborns

An abandoned baby discovered in a shopping in freezing temperatures earlier this year has been confirmedt o share the same parents as two other dumped newborns.

DNA testing has shown that the baby girl, later named Baby Elsa, has two siblings who were also found alone in London 2017 and 2019. The children were discovered over a span of seven years and were located just miles apart.

The second baby, Roman, was also found in a shopping bag, while the first child, called Harry, was discovered wrapped in a blanket.

Despite these revelations, the identity of their parents remains unknown, leading to an updated appeal from the Metropolitan Police. The force is urging anyone with information to step forward.

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The update was announced at East London Family Court on Monday, when the judge gave permission for the news to be published. Below we have detailed the circumstances of each sibling, all of whom were found in similar conditions, reports the Mirror.

Baby Elsa

Baby Elsa was discovered in freezing conditions in East Ham on the evening of January 18 this year. It’s believed she was less than an hour old when a dog walker found her, swaddled in a towel inside a reusable shopping bag with her umbilical cord still attached.

She was discovered at the meeting point of Greenway and High Street South, affectionately named Elsa by hospital staff who attended to her. This was a nod to both the freezing temperatures she was found in and a character from the Disney movie Frozen.

The Metropolitan Police believed it to be “highly likely” that Elsa was the result of a “concealed pregnancy”. They shared that the woman believed to have abandoned her was seen walking into the Greenway from the entrance on High Street South around 8:45 pm on January 18, nearly thirty minutes before baby Elsa’s discovery.

Chief Superintendent Simon Crick, who leads policing in Newham, called for Elsa’s mother to come forward back in January, prompting anyone with pertinent information to swiftly get in contact. A chilling revelation was made during a past court hearing, reported by the BBC; it took medical professionals three hours to determine Elsa’s body temperature owing to the bitter cold, supported by the Met Office’s report of a -4C temperature drop that night.

Barristers standing for Newham London Borough Council stated during an April court proceeding that a conclusive care decision for Elsa can’t be reached yet due to an ongoing parental identification investigation, implying that another hearing will occur sometime in the future.

Baby Roman

Another baby, previously named Roman, was found under similar frosty conditions almost five years prior. On January 30, 2019, approximately 10.15pm, police were alerted about a baby located in a park near Roman Road and Saxon Road in East Ham.

The police reported that the infant was discovered wrapped in a white towel, placed in a shopping bag and left next to a bench in a small children’s playground. There had been no attempt to conceal her.

The baby was found by a dog walker, Rima Zvaliauskas, who told the BBC in 2019 that she was “shocked and stressed” after hearing a noise emanating from the bag.

The child, whose real name is not Roman, has since been adopted.

Baby Harry

Another case involved Baby Harry, who was found swaddled in a white blanket and abandoned in a park on 17 September 2017. The boy, christened Harry by medical staff, was discovered in an area off Balaam Street in Plaistow, east London.

After receiving care at a hospital, Harry was discharged and has since been adopted.

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