Inquest date set for baby found beneath floor
PA MediaAn inquest date has been set for a baby whose body was found hidden beneath floorboards wrapped in a 116-year-old newspaper.
The boy, who has been named Baby Auckland by the authorities, was discovered by contractors renovating a building in Bishop Auckland in July 2024.
The baby, who was reckoned to be a full-term child at 40 weeks old, was buried in Bishop Auckland Town Cemetery in April.
At a short hearing in Crook, County Durham senior assistant coroner Crispin Oliver said he would hold a full inquest on 17 September, with several experts lined up.
They will include the Durham Police detective investigating the case, a forensic pathologist and a radiocarbon dating doctor.
Oliver said he would be seeking to answer four questions, namely who the deceased was and when, where and how they died.
The baby was found in a building on Fore Bondgate on 29 July 2024.
He was wrapped in an edition of The Umpire newspaper from Sunday 19 June 1910 and had a brown twine knotted around his neck.
A previous inquest heard carbon dating analysis estimated the most likely period in which he lived and died was between 1726 and 1812.
But at the baby's funeral, Det Ch Insp Melvin Sutherland said the data painted a broader time frame and he believed the baby lived and died in 1910, which would be the date etched into the boy's headstone.
The inquest will be held at Crook Coroner's Court on 17 September.
