"Police dig for ‘multiple’ babies’ graves at rural property on the outskirts of Gin Gin, near Bundaberg"
- Details
- Category: Uncategorised
- Created: Tuesday, 18 March 2014 00:30
- Written by Kathleen Donaghey, Kate Kyriacou - The Courier-Mail
Excavations will continue at a property in Qld which is believed to contain the remains of several babies.
POLICE are preparing to exhume multiple babies from secret graves hidden for more than a decade on a rural property near Bundaberg.
Forensic officers and cold case detectives swarmed the property on the outskirts of Gin Gin yesterday after a tip that the births of babies had been concealed in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
It is not known how many bodies police expected to find on the property.
The grisly investigation has shocked residents of the small highway town of just 1000 people, 51km west of Bundaberg.
Cold Case Homicide Unit Detective Inspector Mick Dowie said the same family had lived on the property during the period of the deaths but had since moved away.
Det Insp Dowie said a single family was involved in the incident but he would not identify them or the property.
“This is a very sensitive investigation, of course, and by law we do need to protect the identity of any family members,’’ he said.
“We’re talking about children that have been born and you can draw your own conclusions from the fact that we’re doing excavations on the property.”
He said detectives would be interviewing “people in the area’’ over the coming days while teams continued the excavation operation at the rural property.
“We’ve been looking into this information for some time now,’’ he said. “I’m not prepared to discuss the number of children involved.
“At the end of the day it will come down to a crime scene examination and also interviews to be conducted with a number of people in the area over the next couple of days, then we’ll assess all that information and any evidence that we find.’’
Scientific Officers from both Central Region and the Forensic Services Group, Scientific Section in Brisbane are assisting investigators in the search of the property
Detectives from the Cold Case Unit and the Child Trauma Task Force are involved in the investigation.
Specialist scientific officers have travelled from Brisbane to the property, where they will work alongside colleagues from the Bundaberg, Wide Bay-Burnett district.
The investigation came about after a person came forward with information, Det Insp Dowie said, adding: “I can’t identify that person.”
“We will be interviewing a number of people in this area over the coming days to try and establish whether there is any evidence to corroborate the information that we have and that will be linked obviously to any evidence that we discover as a result of the crime scene examination.’’
While phones rang hot with the news in Gin Gin yesterday, very few people could recall anyone who had lived in the area who may fit the description of the family allegedly involved.
One (local) woman said the baby dig was just the latest in a number of unusual past incidents in the town.
One woman said the baby dig was just the latest in a number of unusual past incidents in the town.
(Source : http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/national/police-dig-for-multiple-babies-graves-at-rural-property-on-the-outskirts-of-gin-gin-near-bundaberg/story-fnii5v71-1226857510262?sv=96f1d683c55f78ff29303fbdadf52901)
