ST. LOUIS (AP/WSVN) — Authorities are investigating after a man said he found the body of an infant inside a freezer while cleaning out his mother’s St. Louis apartment after she died.
Adam Smith told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that he was going through his mom’s belongings after she died July 21 at the age of 68 from lung cancer.
Smith made the discovery when he opened a box Sunday that his mom had kept in her freezer for decades.
Smith told Fox 2 that he had seen the box while growing up, but his mother told him the package was none of his business, so he always avoided it.
Police said in a news release only that the infant was found inside a residence and that the death is being investigated as “suspicious” pending an autopsy. Police declined further comment.
Smith said he has provided police a DNA sample.
Smith told Fox 2 that he remembers his mother speaking once about losing a child at birth and said a relative recently told him his mother gave birth to twins but lost one at birth and gave the other child up for adoption.
“I have to wait for the autopsy to see if that baby ever took a breath, and I cannot help it to think she might have done something to it,” Smith told the station. “I just can’t help it.”
Now he said he has a number of questions he fears may never be answered.
“I wanted some type of closure, and I feel like I may never get any closure because my mom’s gone,” he said.
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