04/08/2002

By KGW and AP Staff

Medical examiners say they can't determine exactly how the baby found at the beach last weekend died, but the infant was probably buried in the sand some time last month.

Volunteers found the baby wrapped in several layers of plastic during the annual SOLV Spring Beach Cleanup on Saturday.

The autopsy showed the child was a girl but it was not clear if she was still born. Examiners said the body was badly decomposed. Police are still searching for the child’s mother.

Athena Crichton and her daughters were picking up litter when they found the body at South Beach State Park.

Athena Crichton and her daughters were cleaning the beach when they discovered the baby's body. (KGW Photo)

Crichton said she noticed a bad smell and saw part of a plastic bag sticking out of the sand. She did not open the bag at first, and a Parks worker put it in a dumpster.

An hour later, Crichton decided to take a closer look, and convinced a parks ranger to help her find the bag. She began unwrapping several layers of plastic.

"Then I pulled out a little foot," she said. "It took me back. I was like, This is human...

"I just can't imagine. This poor being never got a chance."

Police expect to release more details later today after an autopsy. Lieutenant Cal Curths of the Oregon State Police says the autopsy will reveal if the baby was dead when it was buried and how it died.

"If anyone knows of someone who was pregnant but did not deliver, or knows of something suspicious, we want to know about it," said Lt. Curths.

Curths said police had not received any reports of a missing baby.

The discovery came during the 18th annual SOLV beach cleanup. Organizer Jack McGowan said volunteers have never recovered evidence of a serious crime.

Volunteers with the SOLV beach cleanup discovered the child's body near Newport. (KGW Photo)

"We have never had anything like this," he said. "Something like this during the beach cleanup really affected us greatly."

Lincoln County has been staggered by more than a dozen homicides and drownings in the last five months.

Christian Longo, 28, faces aggravated murder charges in the deaths of his wife, MaryJane, and their three small children. Their bodies were found along the coast in late December.

Also in December, four men died when their crabbing boat capsized off Newport, and the bodies of two people who apparently committed suicide washed ashore.

In November, two teen-agers were swept off rocks near Depoe Bay.

This year, in January, a woman shot and killed her mother. In March, a woman apparently was swept into the ocean near Devil's Churn Wayside in southern Lincoln County.