https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14714245/Hunt-mother-abandoned-three-babies-London.htmlHunt for mother who abandoned three babies in London narrows to 400 homes as police say a fourth youngster may soon be found
By JOSE RAMOS
Published: 07:01, 15 May 2025 | Updated: 07:26, 15 May 2025
The search to find the mother who abandoned three children in London has narrowed to around 400 homes as police say they can't rule out a fourth baby being found as time goes on. Officers have been knocking on several properties in an area in East Ham and Plaistow, in East London, as they try to find the mother of the children. It is believed the person who abandoned them, who may or may not have been their mother, could have travelled from one of those homes. Officers have been asking neighbours in the area for voluntary DNA samples and for anyone with information to come forward. Harry, Roman and Elsa, were found abandoned in 2017, 2019, and 2024, respectively, within a few miles of each other, which the senior investigating officer in the case described as 'wholly unprecedented'. Investigators have been able to establish a full DNA profile of their mother, but although hundreds of hours of CCTV have been reviewed and a £20,000 offered, she remains unidentified. Detective Inspector Jamie Humm, the case's senior investigating officer, said the investigation had been 'comprehensive and thorough', but that police must conclude that the person who abandoned the children 'did not want to be found'. He said: 'They've done so in places where there are no CCTV cameras, and as heavily surveilled as London is, the reality is there's going to be pockets and areas that are not covered with footage.'
He continued: 'We can't be blind to the fact that there may be a fourth (baby), and certainly the passage of time and the cycles of nine months it would take to potentially get pregnant and birth a child, mean that we cannot discount that. 'That means, again, I'm appealing to the public, because if there is another abandoned child, that child may not be as fortunate as Elsa and her siblings. 'So we really want the public to understand what we understand about the risk here, and to come forward and speak to us, because it's that one bit of information that we feel that may open this whole case.'
Elsa was found wrapped in a towel in a reusable shopping bag on January 18 last year, at the junction of Greenway and High Street South in East Ham, in sub-zero temperatures. Roman was found in similar circumstances a short distance away, in a play area off Roman Road, Newham, in late January 2019, as freezing temperatures and snow gripped the capital. Their brother, Harry, was found wrapped in a white blanket in Balaam Street, Plaistow, in September 2017. All three children were abandoned in areas not covered by CCTV, and Mr Humm said he believed their mother 'is in danger'. He said: 'In any police investigation you make your tactical decisions around hypotheses, and the hypothesis that, as senior investigating officer, I believe is most likely, is that the mother of these children is vulnerable, is in danger, and is in a position where they feel that they are unable to come forward for whatever reason.'
He said officers are treating the mother as a 'victim' and said the force is on 'standby to support her with everything she needs.'
The police investigation has been supported by a specialist team from the National Crime Agency (NCA), which includes geographical profilers and behavioural investigative advisers. Residents of the 400 houses are under no obligation to provide DNA samples, and the NCA is helping to shape the questions that police ask people on their doorstep. Agency investigators have also been deployed alongside Metropolitan Police officers during the house-to-house inquiries. Noel McHugh, national senior investigating officer adviser for the South East at the NCA, said that the case was 'deeply troubling' and that it was a 'miracle' the children survived because of the conditions in which they were abandoned. But he said that the case had some 'really unique signatures' which made it 'solvable and detectable', adding that the answer 'is in the community'. He said: 'We need the public, and with nearly every crime the public are the ones who assist and thread that crime together in solving it. It is never the police or NCA on their own.'
Detective Superintendent Lewis Basford, strategic investigative adviser for the operation, said that the latest inquiries would provide 'a lot of information to follow' which could take 'weeks and months' to process, but that the investigation 'will never stop'. He said: 'Police won't give up, and we will follow all the lines of inquiry we can to try and find them and answer the questions as to why.'
Family Court proceedings related to Elsa are continuing, with several hearings taking place at East London Family Court since she was found. In June, Judge Carol Atkinson ruled that the media could report the familial link between the three children, who are black, as well as other details, following an application by the PA news agency and the BBC. The court was previously told that Elsa's birth cannot be registered, and no final decision made as to her care, because of the ongoing investigation. Roman and Harry not their real names have already been adopted.
