VIC: Police sift burnt home ruins for baby, abduction possible

AAP General News (Australia)
02-13-1999
VIC: Police sift burnt home ruins for baby, abduction possible

MELBOURNE, Feb 13 AAP - Police were tonight searching the ruins of a fire-damaged house in
Melbourne's east for the body of an eight-day-old baby girl, unsure whether she was in the
house when it caught fire this morning.

They had not ruled out the possibility the baby was abducted before the fire broke out, and
held grave fears for her welfare.

They have interviewed the baby's mother, who was asleep when the suspicious fire broke out,
and who was later treated for smoke inhalation at Box Hill Hospital.

As well, police were seeking a third, unidentified woman, believed to be an acquaintance of
the mother.

A neighbour told ABC-TV that the mother said she had been drugged before awaking to a
burning house and finding her baby gone.

The ABC reported that the woman being sought was not well known to the mother, but had
called at the Bellara Street, Doncaster house about 10.20am, four hours before the fire broke
out in the front of the dwelling.

She was believed to have still been in the house when the mother went to sleep on the sofa.

"She (the mother) said the woman had given her a couple of little white tablets to take ...
she didn't know what they were," neighbour Beres Campbell said.

"She was banging on the front door and when I got there she said the house was on fire and
she could not find the baby."

Detective Inspector Ray McLeod-Dryden told reporters he could not release further details
of the woman being sought.

"The mother was asleep at the time the fire started and when she woke, it appears she
couldn't find the baby and was disorientated," Inspector McLeod-Dryden said.

Neighbour John Campbell threw a rock through a house window in an effort to find the baby.

"The change table was on fire and all the carpet was on fire but I could see that there was
no baby in the bassinette," he said.

Inspector McLeod-Dryden said it was impossible for police to know exactly what had happened
until officers and forensic experts finished their search of the ruins, which have been
declared a crime scene.

"Once the investigation has been conducted, we'll be in a better position to say what
happened," he said.

"We're keeping a completely open mind as to what occurred".

The baby's father, who was at work when the fire broke out, has also been interviewed.

AAP sjg/was

KEYWORD: BABY NIGHTLEAD

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