Newborn found dead in Texas front yard: police

Police in Texas have appealed for the public’s help after the body of a newborn baby was found in a front yard in Fort Worth.

Officers found the child in front of a home on the 5100 block of Birchman Avenue on Tuesday, June 6.

Fort Worth Police Department said in a Facebook post on June 7: “It is believed the child was placed at this location between the hours of 10:00 p.m. on June 5 and 6:40 a.m. on June 6.”

The department is asking the public for any information or video surveillance footage that will help identify the child’s mother or other family members.

It is also seeking assistance to locate other witnesses “who may have information about this child and can help investigators confirm that the mother is not in need of medical assistance.”

The police statement did not include any information about the child’s cause of death.

There were 2,073 infant deaths in the state in 2019, the latest year for which data is available, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services. The department added that the mortality rate for infants—babies under 1 year—was 5.5. deaths per 1,000 live births in that year.

The infant mortality rate across the United States was 5.4 per 1,000 live births in 2020, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Almost 20,000 infants died in the U.S. in 2020.

The CDC lists the five leading causes of infant death in the U.S. as:

• Birth defects
• Preterm birth and low birth weight
• Sudden infant death syndrome
• Injuries (such as suffocation)
• Maternal pregnancy complications.

The Fort Worth Police Department is asking anyone with information on the baby found on Birchman Avenue to contact investigators at 682-382-1510 or 682-382-1524.

Newsweek has contacted the Fort Worth PD via email for comment.

Last month police in Kansas City, Missouri, launched an investigation after a body of a baby was found in a wooded area. No details about the child were released at the time, but Kansas City PD said last week that she had been identified as Kha’liya Bridgewater, who was 6 months old.

In late April the body of a newborn with umbilical cord still attached was found in a Los Angeles park.

Lieutenant Hugo Reynaga, from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, told reporters at the time: “This is a 6 to 7-month gestational period baby found with an umbilical cord attached to the placenta.”

The sheriff’s department said a week later that the medical examiner believed the child had been stillborn.