Renovator uncovers mummified infant

[Canuckistanian]

Henry Stancu
Staff Reporter



Renovator Bob Kinghorn got the shock of his life when he found a mummified infant wrapped in newspaper dated Sept. 12, 1925, in a house he was working on last night.

"You always hope to find something in walls – coins, antiques – but never a baby," he said as he stood in front of the home on Kintyre Ave., near Broadview Ave. and Queen St. E., late last night.

Kinghorn, 37, who lives two doors away from the three-storey, semi-detached Riverdale area home, was about to drill a hole through a ceiling joist for wiring when he noticed a bundle of newspaper he first thought was insulation in a second floor bedroom of the empty home about 8 p.m.

http://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/article/239573

Bizarre.

On edit: This took place in Toronto, Canada

[MissB]

1. Yikes.

Not what you'd want to find.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

2. Some teenager had a baby, I bet

In 1925, birth control was illegal in most states, and of course having a child out of wedlock would be a disgrace. I can imagine a poor girl hiding her pregnancy as best she could, having the baby, and stuffing it in newspapers in the wall to hide her shame.

Remember that there are some anti-abortionists who would like to go back to a time like this, when not only abortion but birth control was banned.

[Canuckistanian]

3. I don't think that's the whole story

How could a teenaged mother install a whole wall by herself?

Also, the paramedics first on the scene said that the infant seemed to have a crushed hip.

There seems to be a dark story here, involving at least a few people.

[unpossibles]

5. probably not a whole wall but a patch

or could have been in the floor - it did say he was drilling through joists.

I would also bet the parents were involved too.

[Gormy Cuss]

6. The sidebar suggests a connection to a mentally ill homeowner.

The article also indicates the body was not a newborn, but an infant of a few months age.

[Canuckistanian]

7. The sidebar is new

It wasn't there when I posted it.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

4. That was very common, apparently.

My father graduated from high school in 1929.

He said that girls would disappear from school, and die, probably from an illegal or self induced abortion, and nobody would say anything about it. People didn't talk about young girls dying suddenly.

I've looked at old newspapers with short articles about teenaged girls dying, and they say something like "stomach ailment", "appendicitis", or some vague complaint.