Newborn found in latrine gets name, mourners at her burial
Lindsey Collom
The Arizona Republic
Jul. 26, 2005 04:55 PM
She didn't have a name or a chance to count.
But on Tuesday, a newborn found in the septic water of a portable toilet in Chandler two months ago was buried with both.
Fewer than a dozen mourners gathered to remember a little girl they never met and had no connection to - a child whom funeral workers named "Angel."
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"Society is going to say this is an insignificant event, burying an insignificant child, someone we didn't even know (or) get a chance to be acquainted with," said the Rev. Marlin Hall, who presided over the graveside service. "I believe Angel's life did count ... Her purpose was to bring us together."
A construction worker found her body May 21 in a residential area under construction southeast of Gilbert and Ocotillo roads. Police said the child was born in the commode, but it was unknown whether she was alive at birth. Autopsy results are pending.
Police have had no success finding the child's mother and say the case has gone cold.
"It's difficult," Detective Brett Lockwood said. "I have to wait until somebody calls in . . . Somebody has to know someone out there who was pregnant and doesn't have a baby to show for it."
But no one has called in since the days immediately following the discovery.
Investigators contacted residents who live near the 3400 block of East Horseshoe Drive, the uninhabited block where it happened; most of the homes were in various stages of construction. Lockwood is certain no woman living in the subdivision was the mother.