Baby S found dumped in bin two years ago finally buried by strangers as mother never found

“Every life that ever forms, or ever comes to be, touches the world in some small way for all eternity,” Celebrant Patrick Eade spoke movingly beside her grave

Baby S was found dead in a recycling depot at Needham Market, Suffolk, after she was dumped in a commercial bin (East Anglia News Service)

The funeral of a newborn baby girl found dead in a recycling yard has finally taken place two years after the tragic discovery.

The child was buried by strangers as her mother has never been found, as police renewed an appeal to track the unknown parent down.

The baby, known as Baby S was compared to a ‘rosebud that doesn’t bloom’ as she was laid to rest in a tiny white coffin in a poignant graveside ceremony on Thursday.

A crowd of 15 mourners including police, council officials and six staff from the recycling firm where she was found gathered to say their final farewell to her.

Some wiped away tears as her coffin was carried to her grave with a single white rose on top in the children’s section of the Millennium Cemetery in Ipswich, Suffolk.

Baby S was discovered during the first lockdown on May 14, 2020, by staff sorting waste at the Sackers recycling depot in Needham Market, near Ipswich.

Police believe she was dumped in a bin at one of 52 commercial sites in the Ipswich area which had waste picked up and taken to the centre earlier in the day by two Sackers lorries.

Officers viewed more than 11,000 hours of CCTV footage and visited 800 homes and businesses in their hunt for clues, but failed to identify her parents.

A post mortem by a Home Office pathologist was unable to establish how she died but said that she was under 48 hours old when she died.

A crowd of 15 mourners including police, council officials and six staff from the recycling firm where Baby S was found gathered to say their final farewell to her (East Anglia News Service)

Police admit they do not know whether she was alive or dead when she was dumped in the bin.

Celebrant Patrick Eade spoke movingly beside her grave, saying: “Baby S, you will never be forgotten. May the light of love shine upon you, and on those who care for you, and may you come to the end of your journey in gentleness and joy.

“Your memory remains in our hearts, and as long as we remember you, you will live on. With love and respect, we lay you down to rest. Go your way in peace.”

He also read a poem, which began with the words: “The world may never notice if a rosebud doesn’t bloom, or even pause to wonder if the petals fall too soon.

“But every life that ever forms, or ever comes to be, touches the world in some small way for all eternity.”

Earlier Mr Eade spoke about the baby’s unknown family at a private funeral service, saying she had died “in the most tragic circumstances”.

He said: “It’s difficult to imagine what family members of Baby S are experiencing. To move on is to put something behind you, forget about it and never look back. To ‘go on’ is to forever carry it forward with you and never forget.

“A bereaved parent will never move on, but ‘go on’. If a message could reach the family of Baby S, I imagine it would be - ‘Please tell what I can do to help’.”

Mr Eade also praised police and staff from Sackers, saying: “Each of you have played a part in ‘doing the right thing’, as you tried to fit together the pieces of this tragic jigsaw and ensure that Baby S will be laid to rest in a dignified manner, never forgotten, and extend help to those in need.”

He added: “We will think of you often as days go past, asking why your life was not meant to last. The question we all ask to an imagined sky, how can this be and always asking why.”

The ceremony included the playing of “Somewhere over the rainbow” by Israel Kamakawiwo’ole and “The Long and Winding Road” by The Beatles Detective Inspector Karl Nightingale of Suffolk Police, who was at the funeral, made an appeal for her parents or anyone with information to come forward.

He said: “Today we have laid this newborn baby girl to rest. Known only as Baby S, at this time we remain keen to establish the facts of what happened to her prior to her discovery on May 14, 2020.

“We have always kept an open mind of what led to her being placed into a bin. Time has moved on, but we remain unclear about this little girl’s story.

“After nearly two years, people’s lives have changed. Very few may know the truth about her story, but someone must.

“Now is the time to come forward and share with us the details of her short life, and this little baby girl her proper name.”

David Dodds, the CEO of Sackers who was at the service with some of his staff, pledged to buy a headstone for her grave.

He said: “We just wanted to pay our respects and see her in her last resting place. I can’t describe how harrowing it was for the members of staff who found her body. It has had a huge impact on the staff.

“We are all so concerned for her mother. We want her to get the help she needs.”

East Anglia News Service