Police have exhumed the remains of a baby found in a dam in Ballarat 34 years ago, in the hope that technological advancements will help them confirm the child’s identity.
Police confirmed that detectives from Ballarat’s Criminal Investigation Unit applied to a coroner for authority to exhume the remains.
The coroner granted the application, and the remains were recovered from a Springvale cemetery on May 25.
“At the time, investigators were unable to identify the infant or their cause of death,” police said.
“Following a review of the coronial case, detectives hope advancements in technology will assist in identifying the infant. A forensic examination is under way.”
The Age reported in 1992 that two young boys found a bag with the infant’s body in it while fishing in the Yuille dam in Wendouree, a suburb of Ballarat, on July 26 that year.
“They were fishing for redfin … when they snagged a plastic bag,” The Age reported at the time.
“A decomposed hand fell out and the boys dropped their rods and ran. Part of the infant’s jawbone was sent to the dental hospital in Melbourne and some body tissue was sent to Sydney for forensic tests.
“But, because the body had probably been in the water for more than two months, the scientists could not even tell if it was a boy or a girl. The police said it was more than likely stillborn. Wearing a blue singlet, it was trussed in three plastic bags and dumped in the dam.”
The police search and rescue squad scoured the dam and surrounds the following day, and then appealed to the mother of the baby to come forward. On July 28, 1992, the then head of Victoria’s homicide squad lamented that police had not received a single call from the public about the case.
An autopsy later revealed the baby was up to six months old.
An inquest into the child’s death, held in 1993, heard the boys alerted a man in the area of their discovery, and the man rode his bike to a milk bar to call police.
In the following days, the inquest heard, police doorknocked about 900 houses in Ballarat to try to discover the baby’s identity, to no avail.
The inquest ultimately couldn’t determine who, if anyone, caused the death or who discarded the baby’s remains.
The baby was buried together with two adults in an unmarked grave in Springvale in September 1992.
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