Abandoned Baby Jude laid to rest
At her burial yesterday in the children's plot in Glasnevin, a handful of gardaí and members of the coroner's office gathered to pay their respects.
Months of interviewing and appealing for information have yielded nothing. The identity of the child's parents is a mystery.
Baby Jude was found in a canvas sports bag, wrapped in a towel and rug on Sunday, July 14, 2002, by a man walking on the beach. She was one day old and was dead, from exposure.
Her resting place, until yesterday, was Dublin's city morgue. Gardaí had hoped her mother would come forward and were reluctant to bury the child.
"Normally we won't bury it because we may have to exhume it at a later stage if someone came forward. But it's been eight months and we're at the stage where we've exhausted the interview process so the Coroner's Office decided on a burial," a garda spokesman said.
Samples of Jude's DNA have been kept, just in case. Gardaí in Donnybrook have not given up hope. Gardaí spent months interviewing hundreds of people who had been in the Sandymount area at the time of the discovery of Baby Jude's body.
"Since then we've issued a number of appeals, but nothing has turned up. We have no leads," Supt Phillips said. Gardaí are again appealing for Jude's mother to come forward, without her, she will probably remain anonymous forever.
Anyone with information should contact Donnybrook Garda Station: 01-6669200 or the Garda Confidential Telephone Line 1800-666-111.
