A Johnston County homeowner made a gruesome discovery under their own home over-the-weekend.
Saturday afternoon, a West Smithfield resident was running a cable in the crawlspace of their home on Hartley Drive when they located two trash bags just inside the crawlspace door. The resident removed the bags and opened them to see what was inside. The man saw what appeared to be human remains and immediately contacted Smithfield Police.
Officers arrived on the scene around 5:00pm and discovered what appeared to be human infant remains inside the two bags. The remains were wrapped in towels inside the trash bags.
According to a copy of a search warrant obtained by JoCoReport.com, Smithfield Police detectives seized several items during a search of the property including paperwork from the Department of Social Services, a bottle of prenatal vitamins, a 2015 appointment letter for prenatal care at UNC Healthcare, white trash bags found in a bedroom, black trash bags found in an exterior storage room, a lunch bag, small notebook and a cigarette butt.
The current occupant of the home told police a woman who had previously lived at the address had been pregnant approximately 10 times, however the whereabouts of only 3 of those children were presently known, according to the search warrant. In one incident between 2001 and 2004, the pregnant woman allegedly said she was traveling on the interstate when she went into labor, drove to a hospital and delivered a child, and left the child at the hospital to be adopted. The occupant reported a second incident, around 2005, where the pregnant woman had locked herself in a bathroom for hours and later a blood trail was discovered between the bathroom and a bedroom. No one knew what happened to the infant.
A medical examiner responded to the scene on Hartley Drive Saturday night and confirmed the remains appeared to be a human child, most likely an infant.
On Monday, Smithfield Police declined to confirm any information about their investigation, or the information contained in the search warrant affidavit.
