PLEASANT HILL, Mo. — The body of a baby was discovered Monday encased in concrete, and now police are questioning an adult who lived in the home located in Pleasant Hill, Mo.
Police told FOX 4’s Macradee Aegerter they responded to the home in the 300 block of Cline St., on reports of a stolen automobile. When they arrive, they asked the man if they could search the home and police said they received the resident’s permission.
During the search, police say they noticed a plastic tote filled with concrete. They then discovered the body of a baby inside.
“During the course of that investigation, it led us not only to the stolen auto and to some minor drug paraphernalia and drugs, but it also led us to a capsule that we believed contained a body of an infant that had possibly been born sometime in the first part of October,” explained Chief Robert Driscoll, Pleasant Hill Police.
The couple who live in the home has four children, according to police. The children are now with their grandparents in the small town of Prairie Home, Mo., about two hours east of Pleasant Hill. FOX 4’s Robert Townsend took the trip there and inquired of the grandparents about the situation.
“Yeah, we are the grandparents, but we have the other children who are here and there’s no need to sensationalize this. We have no comment, ” the grandmother told FOX 4.
The grandfather ordered FOX 4 to leave.
“We’re done with you,” he said. “Leave or I’ll make you leave.”
Neighbors who lived near the Pleasant Hill home said the mother denied being pregnant.
“He [her husband] denied with her,” Kurt Brent, neighbor, said. “He said she wasn’t.”
Police tell FOX 4 that the mother of the children is in the hospital. Neighbors say she has been there for a few weeks.
“It’s puzzling. I still don’t know what to think about it. It’s crazy,” said neighbor Kurt Brent. “There’s obvious some sadness, but yet anger takes over because how could somebody do that to an innocent child?” Brent asked during our interview.
Police held the father for questioning Tuesday afternoon but charges have not yet been filed.
It was unclear if the child was stillborn or died after birth. An autopsy was underway to determine the child’s cause of death. Police did not yet know if any crime had been committed and did not know which, if any, charges would be filed by the Cass County Prosecutor’s office.
Earlier coverage:
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