Dad ‘traumatised’ after finding 100-year old baby skeleton under floorboard

A man who uncovered the remains of a 100-year-old dead baby underneath a floorboard says he is still traumatised by the event months later. Dad-of-six David Dent discovered the skeletal remains of the newborn wrapped in a newspaper dating back to 1910 while carrying out refurbishment work on an upstairs flat in Bishop Auckland, County Durham, last July. Police believe the child, whose gender is unknown, may have been killed shortly after birth due to twine wrapped around their neck.

They are currently awaiting carbon dating analysis to determine when exactly the baby died, and a DNA profile which may hopefully allow them to track down surviving relatives. David, from Newton Aycliffe, said he was in shock when he unwrapped the remains after lifting up the floorboards with a colleague, and remains shaken by the incident. He told the Sun: ‘I was stood with a length of 4×2, popping these floorboards up, and we found a ball of newspaper.

‘All I could see was a ribcage… We picked it up and the first my mate said was “urgh, what’s that there?” I thought it must be a big pigeon. ‘When I got hold of it, I looked at it and for some reason I pulled the paper off it and I’ve seen a little skull. ‘When I saw that I was in a bit of shock. I half placed it, half dropped it on the floor. ‘I noticed a little arm and a hand that fell off it.’.

David said he was shook by the size of the newborn, which was the same size as his own daughter Bella, and Facetimed his wife for advice. She spotted the lengths of twine around the baby’s neck and told him to call the police, who soon arrived to confirm the discovery. David said he had previously worked for an undertaker and was generally undisturbed by bodies, but the discovery of the dead baby had bothered him.

He also said PTSD from the incident is still with him and he is disappointed that police haven’t kept him in the loop about developments like they promised. ‘I’ve not been too bad these last couple of months,’ David told the publication. ‘When I get a decent drink on the weekend when I’m out with the lads and that, it’s weird, it just gets like flashed back. ‘I think about how anyone could do that to a baby because I’ve got six kids of my own.’.

He added: ‘Hopefully the baby can be put to rest, with a bit of luck they’ll find its relatives.’. Detectives from Durham Constabulary are delving into historical records from 1900 to 1920 in a bid to uncover the identity of a baby whose remains were discovered concealed beneath the floorboards of a Victorian-era property. Police are treating the death as suspicious due to the twine wrapped around the baby’s neck.

The property, which dates back to the Victorian period, once housed a church-run mother and baby unit, although investigators suspect the baby was hidden long before the unit was established. Detective Chief Inspector Mel Sutherland, from Durham Constabulary, said in August last year: ‘The evidence suggests this has happened a very long time ago, which makes investigating the circumstances extremely difficult, but we still have a duty to that baby.

‘My focus is on finding out who the baby is, what happened and how it came to be under the floorboards of that house. ‘As soon as we are able to, I am determined that this little baby is given an appropriate and dignified funeral.’. The investigation gained traction last year following reports that a woman named Mary Jane Walker, who lived at the property in the early 20th century, may have been the baby’s mother.

Research conducted by the Daily Mail identified Ms. Walker as a potential suspect, after the 1911 census revealed her to be the only woman of child-bearing age to have lived at the property during the period. According to the 1911 census, she was a 22-year-old single woman and the only female of child-bearing age residing at 67 Fore Bondgate, the address where the baby was found. Ms. Walker was a 22-year-old single woman who was listed as a ‘domestic servant’ and remained at the property for over 50 years, with no record of her ever marrying.

During the early 1900s, falling pregnant outside of marriage was heavily stigmatized, often forcing women to conceal their pregnancies. But while Ms. Walker’s connection to the baby remains speculative, her circumstances align with the social pressures of the time, and investigators are awaiting scientific evidence to determine whether there is a definitive link between her and the child. As the inquiry continues, detectives remain committed to uncovering the truth behind this haunting historical mystery and ensuring the baby receives the dignity and closure it deserves.