Dead Baby Found In Washing Machine In Australia

Police are investigating the death of a newborn child found dead inside a washing machine in Brisbane, Australia, according to The Australian.

The Courier Mail reports that the minutes-old infant girl was wrapped in clothing and placed inside her parents' washing machine on Jan. 26, and that the child was full-term, ruling out a stillbirth. The Brisbane Times notes that the washing machine had not been turned on with the baby inside.

Police only released information on the child's death on Tuesday.

"We have been treating the death as suspicious since the incident took place," Detective Senior Sergeant Tod Reid, the officer in charge of the North Brisbane Child Protection Unit said in The Sydney Morning Herald. "However, due to some post-mortem results and forensic testing we are only now able to confirm that it is a suspicious death."

According to The Brisbane Times, the baby girl's mother initially told police she had not been pregnant, later saying she did not know she had been pregnant. Police were awaiting further DNA results, but were certain that the woman in her mid-30s was the child's mother. And according to The Australian, the woman and her husband had other children living in the home at the time of the infant's death.

A family member had called paramedics on Jan. 26, NineMSN notes, but the child was already dead when they arrived.

Officials set up a Major Incident Room at the local police station, according to The Sydney Morning Herald, but no one had been charged yet in relation to the child's death.