Remains of baby boy found hidden in suitcase in Stockport attic may never be identified

The remains of a baby boy wrapped in newspapers dating back to the 1940s may never be identified, an inquest has heard.

They skeletal remains were found the attic of a a house on Berwick Avenue, in Heaton Mersey, Stockport.

A surveyor was inspecting the property in March 2022 ahead of the owners plans to sell, when he opened a hatch and found a locked suitcase.

The property's previous owner had died in 2021 and left it to extended family members. When they were given the suitcase, they prised it open with a screwdriver.

Inside they discovered the 'mummified', 'almost complete', remains of an infant that had been 'carefully wrapped' in cloth and newspapers dating back to the 1940s and 1950s.

A woman who referred to the previous owner as her father, but was not his biological daughter, contacted the police when the remains were discovered.

An inquest was launched hoping to discover the circumstances of the death and the identity of the baby.

The house had 'been in the possession of different members of the same family for several generations', the inquest at Stockport Coroners' Court heard.

Senior Police Officer Rita Wilkinson told the court that a previous occupant and 'maternal grandmother' to the family who discovered the remains lived at the house until she died in the 1980s.

After her death, the 'gentleman they always called father' then lived at the property until he died in 2021.

Despite an 'extensive and detailed' investigation by police, a coroner said it had not been possible to establish the boy's identity. He said there was insufficient evidence to say exactly when or how the child died.

It was possible he may have been stillborn, or been born and died shortly afterwards, the coroner added.

A forensic anthropologist said the child's could not have been older than 4.8 weeks when he died.

A carbon dating expert said the death could not have happened after 1955 and the dawn of the nuclear age. Two pathologists were unable to determine a cause of death.

Rita Wilkinson said the remains were wrapped in three layers of newspaper - dated September 1943; September 1950; and August 1959. 'Details of female names who had lived at the address but who had long been deceased', were also found.

Items also included in the suitcase included a diary from 1948 and an 'item relating to school education.'

Officers were able to trace the family tree backwards and identified two women of child bearing age between 1943 and 1959. Their names were also on items in the suitcase.

Police also identified one of the two women in a photograph that was inside the suitcase.

Rita Wilkinson said: "Those closest who would have been able to give us evidence have all since deceased. It's been kept a secret within the family and hasn't been passed through the family for us to be able to gain information."

She said investigators had 'exhausted all enquiries' and that the probe had now been closed.

Ms Wilkinson said there was 'no third party involvement' or 'evidence of direct criminality in relation to the death'.

Area coroner Chris Morris said that 'very sadly', the boy's identity remained a mystery as he recorded an open conclusion.

He said he could find the death had occurred 'at some stage prior to 1955', but described the evidence in the suitcase as 'circumstantial', adding there was 'nothing sufficient in that to allow [him] to reliably conclude any more about the date of death than that'."For understandable reasons in light of the degree of mummification, pathologists have been unable to confirm a cause of death," Mr Morris added.

He said could also not determine, even on the balance of probabilities, whether the baby had died in utero and been stillborn - or had been born and 'died in the days and weeks that followed'.

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