In a case that moved seasoned detectives to tears, the Metropolitan Police are preparing to close the file on three newborn babies abandoned in near-identical, freezing circumstances in East London. DNA tests revealed the heartbreaking truth: all three children were siblings.
A Trail of Heartbreak in Newham
The investigation began in September 2017 in Plaistow, East London, when a newborn boy was discovered wrapped in a white blanket in a bush. Medical staff named him Harry. Two years later, in January 2019, a second baby boy was found in the same area, wrapped in a white towel inside a shopping bag amid freezing temperatures. He was named Roman and was later confirmed to be Harry's sibling.
The third chilling discovery came in January 2024. A dogwalker found a baby girl, just an hour old, left in a Boots shopping bag as temperatures plunged to -4C. Named Elsa after the Disney film Frozen, she, like her brothers, survived against all odds.
The Exhaustive Search for a 'Ghost'
Fearing a fourth abandonment, Detective Inspector Jamie Humm and a team of 15 officers vowed to do "everything possible" to find the mother. The investigation became one of the Met's most unique, using advanced familial DNA analysis to trace potential relatives across Britain and abroad.
Officers scoured 450 hours of local CCTV but found nothing. They believe the infants were left near the Greenway footpath in Newham—a location chosen for its lack of surveillance. "You are effectively looking for a ghost, someone who's been and gone without ever having left a trace," DI Humm said.
With help from the National Crime Agency, a geographic profiler narrowed the search to an area of 400 houses. Detectives then embarked on a painstaking door-to-door campaign, asking residents to volunteer DNA samples. They followed leads from Scotland to Wales, East Anglia to the Cotswolds, even tracing family trees of the deceased.
Hope Dwindles as Inquiry Nears End
Despite several strong familial matches and over 100 houses visited, each potential lead dissolved. Detective Superintendent Lewis Basford, who leads on public protection, stated, "At times it has felt like we were close... but each time it turned out not to be them."
Police are now nearing the end of the trawl, with a review scheduled for January to formally decide on closing the case. "I now think that the mother may have gone abroad. She may have been forced to leave the area; she may be being controlled," Mr Basford conceded. While they will investigate any new intelligence, officers have "exhausted pretty much everything we can do."
The extraordinary investigation, which tested the limits of modern policing, is now drawing to a close, leaving three surviving siblings and an unanswered question that continues to haunt Newham.
