Three babies abandoned over three years at Florida apartment complex are siblings, reveals DNA report
Three newborns were reportedly found abandoned in Florida on three separate occasions at the same apartment complex. Now, a DNA test revealed that all three were siblings with the same biological parents, officials on Tuesday, April 21, confirmed.
Orlando Police Department officers were called to the Willow Key Apartments on July 19 last year after someone alerted them about an abandoned infant there. The child, nearly one-day-old, was reportedly wrapped in a t-shirt and left at a tenant's doorstep. A note was also left, which explained that "the baby was left at the location because the mother was in fear of the child’s father and the risk he posed to the child," according to police.
However, this was not the first child abandoned at the apartment, authorities were called to the same apartment complex on Arnold Drive in 2016 and 2017 with two more identical incidents, according to the Daily Mail. During the 2017 incident, a handwritten note was left, which read: "I had him in the bathroom alone. His dad tried to kill us. Please keep him secret and take him to the hospital. Dad [is] a very dangerous man."
After a third abandoned child was found in 2019, police found the similarities between the three cases too strange to be brushed aside. According to a public memo, Orlando detective Ghena Wasserman Luker requested $2,500 from the city council to pay for a genetics test to be used in the investigations of the incidents.
Luker, in his request to the city council, wrote that the "analogous manner" in which the three children were abandoned on a resident's stoop in the same luxury complex made authorities suspect that the children were related to each other.
Police, in a statement on Tuesday, confirmed the results of DNA tests, saying: "We can confirm that all three infants, in this case, are siblings but can't comment any further, at this time, to protect the integrity of this ongoing investigation." Authorities also confirmed that all three children had the same mother and father.
Detective Luker said that the investigators, through the DNA testing, have identified several possible family members of the babies, although "information learned from the testing requires specialized knowledge of a genetic genealogist in order to be properly interpreted in an effort to identify the parents."
The police department has reportedly filed for an additional $5,000 to enlist the services of a genetic genealogist company with a vast database of DNA profiles in an attempt to track down the parents of these children.
"Based on the egregious and neglectful behavior of the parent(s), and the bizarre facts of this case, unlike any other documented case, it is imperative to conduct a well-being check of all involved parties," Luker, in a memo to Police Chief Orlando Rolón, wrote.
Florida's Safe Haven law states that a guardian can leave a newborn at a hospital or fire station without facing criminal charges considering the child is seven days old or younger. A parent in a state of distress, under the law, can give up custody of their baby "no question asked".
"They must simply bring the infant to a safe haven location and make sure they locate a person to give the child," the law states. "As long as the child shows no signs of intentional abuse, no name or other information is required," the law states. It is not yet clear whether the parents of the children will face criminal charges if found.