Newborn abandoned outside with the trash: NJ public could help solve case

🚨 The Essex County Prosecutor's Office asks public to help solve a cold case

🚨 A dead newborn was found on top of a trash can in South Orange in 1986

🚨 A picture of the towel he was wrapped in is below

SOUTH ORANGE — It’s been 37 years since a dead baby was discovered, and now the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office is seeking the public’s help in identifying the newborn.

Sanitation workers found the newborn baby boy wrapped in blankets on top of a trash can in South Orange on the morning of Nov. 28, 1986, the day after Thanksgiving.

The little body, which weighed 5 pounds, and still had his umbilical cord, was wrapped in a towel and a yellow table runner and placed in a wicker picnic basket, which was left on the trash can behind an apartment building at 5 Cottage Street, South Orange.

Investigators suspect the wicker basket may have been purchased from a local store.

Detectives intend to use DNA evidence and genetic databases to identify the parents or relatives of the baby, but they are asking the public for help in solving the case.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office tip line at 1-877-TIPS-4EC or email HomicideTips@njecpo.org.

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