Thursday, 28 March, 2024
HomeMedico-LegalInfant bodies went missing from Health Dept's forensic pathology lab

Infant bodies went missing from Health Dept's forensic pathology lab

Melice Jacobs, the Eastern Cape woman known as “Freezer Mom”, is now a free woman. A Daily Dispatch report says her charges of four counts of murder and one of concealment of birth have been withdrawn after the infant bodies found in her freezers went missing from the custody of the Health Department’s Mthatha forensic pathology unit.

In court there was talk of only four miscarriages and four babies, but police had earlier reported that four babies, one foetus and three placentas had been found at the home. She claimed to have had miscarriages in 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012. It will never be known if Jacobs murdered her children soon after birth, or they died as a result of miscarriages borne of a violent relationship with now-dead boyfriend.

According to the state’s post-mortem results read out in court, one infant died of strangulation, two died of hypothermia and another one was an abortion. The reports found the babies to be between 32 weeks and 36 weeks old, while one was 21 weeks old. The defence disputed that a shoelace was wrapped around a neck of one of bodies, saying it was an umbilical cord.

The disappearance of the frozen evidence posed major problems for the NPA as the defence was pushing to have its own post-mortem examinations conducted by an an independent pathologist. The defence had disputed the pathology findings of the state.

Without the bodies, the NPA had no choice but to withdraw all charges before the Eastern Cape High Court (Mthatha).

 

Daily Dispatch article – State ‘loses’ bodies of 5 infants — Missing evidence sets Mthatha ‘Freezer Mom’ free (Restricted access)

 

See more from MedicalBrief archives:

 

Baby killing in South Africa – uncovering the unthinkable

 

Alarming findings from SA child death forensic review

 

Corpses left at accident scenes while EC Forensic Pathology employees strike

 

'Unsupervised' post-mortem claims rubbished

 

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