Newborn Found Dead In Baby Box At Italy Church After Alarm Fails

The body of a newborn, believed to be about a month old, has been found in a box meant for abandoned babies in the southern part of Italy. The infant was left at the church of San Giovanni Battista in the Puglia region's Bari.

Whenever anybody leaves a baby in the cradle, the alarm immediately sends an alert about it, said Father Antonio Ruccia, the parish priest.

Since the alarm failed to ring this time, the newborn's body was first seen by a local funeral home director passing by the baby box door in the area. The person informed the priest about the body, and the local police were called.

The alarm is automatically triggered by a heating system when a baby is left in the crib, followed by a notification about the same to the priest's mobile phone.

The police in Bari are investigating if the heating system did not work or whether the child was already dead when he was left behind. To verify the claims, a post-mortem of the body will be carried out.

The person who left the baby in the box failed to close the door of the small room that houses the crib, police said, adding that might have been the reason the alarm didn't go off.

Introduced in 2006, the baby boxes allow women, who cannot take care of their child, to leave their infants in heated cribs at various hospitals and churches in Italy.

This practice dates back to the 13th century when people used to leave their babies in a "ruota" or wheel embedded into the wall of a church-affiliated children's home. Used until the 1950s when the children's homes were closed down, the concept was replaced by an Italian legislation allowing women to give birth anonymously.

Women were not required to have their names on the birth certificate and could leave their children at hospitals without facing any legal action for it.

According to Ruccia, the baby box at the church in Bari was used last time in December 2023 when somebody left a baby girl in it. The child was later given the name, Maria Grazia.

At the time, the priest noted that there was "no judgment in these events", adding "No one can imagine the pain behind realising that you cannot take care of your little one."