Prosecutor: Dead baby in suitcase found under NJ footbridge was 10-month-old girl
JERSEY CITY, New Jersey (WABC) -- Autopsy results are pending for a baby found dead inside a suitcase under a footbridge in Jersey City.
The Hudson County Prosecutor's Office says a preliminary report by the Regional Medical Examiner's Office has revealed that the infant was a Hispanic or African-American female, approximately 10-months-old.
The medical examiner's office has not yet released its findings as to the cause and manner of death.
"You really couldn't see what it was but they were surrounded around it," said eyewitness Steven Stuckey. "I guess they didn't want us to film it or take any pictures so they asked us to leave off the bridge until they were finished with the investigation."
The footbridge near the crime scene has reopened but the investigation is just beginning.
Homicide investigators from the Hudson County Prosecutors Office want to know who was the infant found in a pink suitcase, who put it there, and how the baby died.
"We initially was told that someone jumped from the bridge on Tonnelle Avenue but once we found out what it was, all I could do was hold my head down and pray that they bring the people to justice," said Stuckey.
Authorities say a Port Authority employee found the suitcase next to the tracks during a routine inspection Wednesday afternoon underneath the Tonnelle Avenue bridge at the end of Van Wagenen Avenue in Jersey City.
Stuckey was outside on a break just as train workers made the discovery.
"I say there's about 10 people down there," he said. "And it was like a box, they were in a box formation. People blocking this way, people blocking this way, people this way so you couldn't see."
And how the suitcase got down near the tracks that are completely fenced off is a big part of the investigation.
But one thing detectives do know is that the child was not a newborn. It had a short life, between six months to a year old, before being tossed out like all the other garbage found on the ground near the suitcase.
"I didn't really want to look," said eyewitness Samad Session "'Cause just to hear that someone died is traumatizing. And then to really find out what it is when you have kids. It's like wow. Especially if you have newborns. Like I have a six month old. So that's really traumatizing to see something happen like that."
Investigators are urging anyone with information about this incident or anyone who remembers seeing something suspicious in this area to contact the Prosecutor's Homicide Unit at 201-915-1345
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