The search for the remains of a Jersey City baby has moved to Kentucky, but police fear that the corpse has already been incinerated.
Police have been looking for the body of Bashere Davon Moyd Jr. since Jan. 2, when it was discovered missing from a hospital morgue.
Christ Hospital officials have not said where the body may have gone, but police say it appears it was thrown away with the hospital's trash sometime between Dec. 21 and Jan. 2. It may have been hauled by train to Ashland, Ky., where the waste company EnviroSolutions operates the Big Run Landfill.
Jersey City police chief Thomas Comey said in a statement that the remains may have already been incinerated.
It's not clear where that might have happened since there isn't an incinerator in the Big Run Landfill, according to the company.
The baby was delivered on Dec. 21. The mother, 26-year-old Kalynn Moore, of Jersey City, said that the child was born alive but with a weak heartbeat. She said her son died about 20 minutes later as doctors tried to save him.
But hospital officials say the baby was stillborn.
Moore's lawyer, Michael Anise, said a death certificate and medical records from the hospital seem to confirm the baby was stillborn.
"The doctor's notes that states it was lifeless," Anise said Wednesday. "That is not our main focus as much as the fact that we had a baby's body here."
Whether the child was stillborn is an important legal distinction because New Jersey law does not recognized stillborn children as humans.
Anise, who has said that a lawsuit is likely, maintains there is no reason for the body of a fetus to have been thrown into the trash.
Hospital officials and Jersey City police did not return calls to The Associated Press on Wednesday.
Anise said the body was discovered missing when a funeral home worker went to pick it up from the morgue. He said a morgue employee was able to find the tags that were affixed to the baby's shirt and blanket when he was taken to the morgue.
He had also requested surveillance video from the hospital hoping it may have shown what happened to the remains. But Wednesday, he said hospital officials told him that the tapes from cameras in the area had been reused.
