One year ago, workers at the Waterbeach recycling centre near Cambridge made the tragic discovery of a baby boy’s body amongst the recycling. Despite being named Gabriel by medics as he was found just before advent, the identity of the baby remains unknown, even with a DNA profile. The police have since closed their investigation, but many unanswered questions remain as to who Gabriel was and how he came to be amongst the waste.
The Waterbeach waste management park processes around 18 tonnes of Cambridgeshire’s household recycling per hour. On the morning of 29 November 2022, this system came to a halt when Gabriel’s body was found, and a police investigation report sheds some light on what happened, but many questions still remain unanswered.
When recycling arrives at the centre, it gets emptied onto the floor in what is termed a “reception area” before being pushed back to keep the floor clear. Police estimate that Gabriel entered this process only 15 minutes before he was found, but no items near him appeared to have any connection to him. The police search was limited by the enormous size of the premises and the amount of recycling within it, the report said.
With nothing at the scene to help police track down where Gabriel entered a recycling bin, they investigated nine vehicles, which came from “satellite stations” across the county, covering 980 streets. Even though his DNA returned no match when put through the database available to detectives, the mystery continues, with the only likely way Gabriel’s identity could be known in the future being through a DNA breakthrough
Read the full article from The BBC here: Read More