Parents Abandon Third Baby Since 2017

A newborn girl found abandoned in east London in January is the sibling of two other babies found abandoned in the same part of the city within the last seven years, reports the BBC. The outlet received special permission from a court to report on the connection of the children discovered in the borough of Newham. Judge Carol Atkinson of the East London Family Court said the case was of "great public interest." The parents of the children, described as Black, have yet to be identified. The baby girl, given the name Elsa, was discovered by a dog walker roughly an hour after birth with her umbilical cord intact on what was the coldest night of the year. She had been wrapped in a towel inside a bag but was very cold regardless.

She was connected to the two other abandoned children through DNA testing. The first baby, a boy dubbed Harry, was discovered wrapped in a blanket in the vicinity of London's Plaistow Park on Sept. 16, 2017. The second, a girl dubbed Roman, was found wrapped in a blanket inside a shopping bag roughly two miles away at the Roman Road Playing Fields on Jan. 31, 2019. The man who discovered her noted it was snowing and "the child had a frosty forehead," per CNN. Elsa was found less than a mile from that second location at the junction of Greenway and High Street South. She is now in foster care and said to be doing well. She will grow up knowing about her siblings, who were later adopted, and all three will have some form of contact, the court was told, per the BBC.

Authorities have repeatedly called for the parents of the infants to come forward. A week after Elsa was discovered, police asked for the public's help in identifying a woman who'd been seen in the area "wearing a large dark coat with a light colored scarf or hood around her neck." She was also carrying a backpack. "It is still believed she could hold important information about how Elsa came to be where she was found," police said, per CNN. The Metropolitan Police previously noted it was "highly likely" that Elsa was born following a "concealed pregnancy." (More abandoned baby stories.)