Police have said they are doing “everything we possibly can” to find the mother of three babies abandoned in London over a seven-year period – amid fears a fourth child may be found.
Officers have focused their inquiries on just 400 homes in an area of east London near to where two of the babies were discovered, with members of the public being asked for voluntary DNA samples to help locate the mother.
Experts believe the person who abandoned the young children, who may or may not be the mother, could have travelled from one of the properties in a specified area of East Ham and Plaistow.
The three babies – named Harry, Roman and Elsa – were abandoned in 2017, 2019 and 2024, respectively. They were all found within a few miles of each other.
A full DNA profile of the mother has been established by investigators, but despite this, hundreds of hours of CCTV footage and a £20,000 reward being offered earlier this year, she remains unidentified.
Each child was discovered in an area where there are no CCTV cameras and the case’s senior investigating officer said police have concluded the person who abandoned the babies “did not want to be found”.
Addressing the possibility of another child, Detective Inspector Jamie Humm added: “We can’t be blind to the fact that there may be a fourth [baby], and certainly the passage of time and the cycles of nine months it would take to potentially get pregnant and birth a child, mean that we cannot discount that.
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“That means, again, I’m appealing to the public, because if there is another abandoned child, that child may not be as fortunate as Elsa and her siblings.”
‘We’re treating the mum as a victim,’ say police
DI Humm also said he believes the mother “is in danger”.
He continued: “The hypothesis that, as senior investigating officer, I believe is most likely, is that the mother of these children is vulnerable, is in danger, and is in a position where they feel that they are unable to come forward for whatever reason.
“We are treating mum as a victim in this case, and we are on standby to support her with everything she needs.”
His comments came as Noel McHugh, national senior investigating officer adviser for the South East at the National Crime Agency, said it was a “miracle” the children survived because of the conditions they were abandoned in.
Elsa was found wrapped in a towel in a reusable shopping bag at the junction of Greenway and High Street South in East Ham, in sub-zero temperatures, on 18 January last year.
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Roman was found in similar circumstances a short distance away in a play area off Roman Road, Newham, in late January 2019, as snow gripped the capital.
The eldest of the three, Harry, was found wrapped in a white blanket in Balaam Street, Plaistow, in September 2017.
Mr McHugh said: “We are doing everything that we possibly can to work through the information, the intelligence that is before us, to understand it, and that is why they [the police] are working on this really focused area.”
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Roman and Harry – not their real names – have already been adopted. Family court proceedings related to Elsa are continuing.
The court was previously told Elsa’s birth cannot be registered, and no final decision on her care has been made due to the ongoing investigation.
