Gießen/Büdingen (dpa/lhe) – When searching for the mother of a dead baby, investigators from Central Hesse have no hot lead to the woman, even after evaluating hundreds of DNA samples. 450 saliva samples were compared, “unfortunately with a negative result,” reported the spokesman for the Gießen public prosecutor’s office, Thomas Hauburger. Almost a year ago, investigators asked around 600 women to submit a saliva sample in order to find the mother of the infant who had been found dead near Büdingen (Wetteraukreis) more than 20 years ago. Her hope: to learn more about the circumstances of the child’s death from the mother.
In April 1999, a pedestrian discovered the body of the newborn girl, packed in a garbage bag. Investigators later named the child Sabrina. What had happened to the girl remained unclear. In 2019, the investigators came a step further in the case: experts managed to obtain a complete DNA of the baby from seized liver cells. This opened up the possibility for a DNA screening in early November 2021.
The police contacted 617 women who lived near where the baby’s corpse was found in 1999 and who were between 13 and 30 years old at the time. The return of 450 samples taken means a very good quota, said senior public prosecutor Hauburger. Another 60 women could not be reached because they had moved abroad or unknown or had died in the meantime. Investigations into the other women who have not yet submitted a saliva sample are ongoing.
