Funeral for baby whose body was found under floorboards

THE POIGNANT funeral of an unidentified baby discovered beneath the floorboards of a North East property has now taken place.

- By David Huntley and John Rogan

The infant boy's skeletal remains, found with twine around the neck and wrapped in a newspaper, were uncovered by a contractor on July 29, 2024 at a property on Fore Bondgate, Bishop Auckland.

Upon making the discovery, the contractor who had been carrying out work on the building alerted Durham Constabulary. As previously reported, a formal inquest into the infant's death was opened last month at County Durham and Darlington Coroner's Court in Crook by Senior Coroner Jeremy Chipperfield.

The skeleton had been wrapped in a copy of a newspaper called 'The Umpire, dated June 1910. Forensic examination, including carbon dating, established that the baby was male and predated 1955.

The cause of death remains unascertained, though DNA analysis confirmed the infant was a 38 to 40-week full-term male. The inquest heard that it cannot be established whether the baby was stillborn, but that it was "not alive during the nuclear era".