A baby girl was found dead with her umbilical cord still attached at the Matahari Terbit beach in Sanur yesterday. Forensic examination reportedly estimated that she may have been stranded at sea for days.
Dudut Rustyadi, who heads the forensic department at Sanglah General Hospital, told Tribun Bali that the baby could have been stranded for as long as five days.
Dudut said the baby was found naked and that there was no sign of abuse. In addition, he explained that the baby’s skin had turned blue as a result of decomposition.
“The baby was born prematurely. [Since] the [pregnancy] was less than seven months, that means the baby was born out of abortion,” Dudut was quoted as saying.
Meanwhile, Denpasar Police Chief Ruddi Setiawan said yesterday that police are carrying out an investigation.
“Our team is investigating and looking for the person who dumped the baby,” Ruddi said.
Bali has seen several cases of babies being dumped in the past year, cases of which usually involves teenagers or young adults.
In August, for example, police revealed a case involving a 20-year-old woman who was arrested for allegedly leaving her newborn baby in a fishing pond in south Denpasar. Another case took place in October, when police named a young couple as criminal suspects in an alleged illegal abortion case, after they were found to have allegedly attempted to dump their newborn baby on the side of a street in Denpasar.
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