WARRENSBURG, Mo. — Warrensburg police announced Thursday morning that it was the body of a Caucasian infant that two biology students found inside a cave on Tuesday, March 4 at Pertle Springs in Warrensburg, Mo.
Eight officers with the University of Central Missouri Department of Public Safety and Warrensburg police continue to try to find the person who dumped the body of the baby inside the cave. They have not revealed whether the infant was a boy or a girl, but in a news release sent out Thursday morning, police indicated the infant was near full-term and Caucasian.
In the news release, Warrensburg Chief of Police Bruce Howey said investigators want to hear from anyone who knows a full-term pregnant woman who planned to give birth sometime in February to early March 2014 and who may have a suspicious explanation about the circumstances of the birth.
Two students found the body Tuesday afternoon in the cave about a mile south of the main campus in Warrensburg. The cave is in a wooded area that is part of the school’s 300-acre recreation area south of the campus. According to the digitalburg.com, the University’s online newspaper, the two students, a man and a woman, were in the area to do research on snakes.
At first they thought the baby was a doll, but the University paper says when they got closer they discovered it was the body of a baby.
It was lying near burned trash.
“We went back (Tuesday) and it smelled like rotten meat coming from the burnt trash,” said one of the students to digitalburg.com‘s Andy Lyons. “I saw what looked like a diaper so I started going through the trash bag with a stick and said to Travis, ‘This looks like (muscle) tissue.’”
Click here to read Managing Editor Andy Lyons’ report, in which the students describe touching the small body to determine it was real.
Campus Police received many calls about the baby’s possible identity, but said they had no solid leads as of Wednesday.
“At this point, there’s no information about where the infant may have come from.. or who the mother is,” said Jeff Murphy, UCM spokesman.
An autopsy was completed on Wednesday.
The university is urging anyone who may know something about this incident to contact the UCM Department of Public Safety at (660) 543-4400. That is a confidential telephone line. A confidential online form is also available at ucmo.edu/tips.
