ST. LOUIS, Mo. — A St. Louis man made a gruesome discovery while cleaning out his mother's apartment after she died.
Adam Smith says he found a dead baby in her freezer, and it's apparently been there for several years. Smith said he has been living in the apartment and taking care of his mother, who passed away from cancer just a few days ago.
He said his mother had kept the box, wrapped up tight, in their freezer for decades and always told him to stay away from it. After she passed away, he decided to open it.
"There was a pink blanket, baby blanket, and when I reached down and touched it I could feel a foot," Smith told CNN. I could see the baby's head with hair, hair that was still attached to it, smooth."
Police were called to the building early Sunday morning. They call the infant's death "suspicious."
Smith told police that he never looked inside the box his mother kept wrapped in the freezer. He always thought it was a frozen wedding cake.
Smith says his mother once told him that she lost a child at birth and that family members have told him that his mother had twins at one point, but lost one of the babies at birth.
The second twin was allegedly given up for adoption.
"Who absolutely keeps their own child in a box for this long and never talks about it and never, I just have so many thoughts and it's just insane," Smith said.
Smith said he's distraught thinking about the possibility that the child may have been his sister and what his mother may have done to her.
"I have to wait for the autopsy to see if that baby ever took a breath and I cannot help it, to think she might have done something to it. I just can't help it," Smith said.
And now that his mother is gone, Smith said he wonders if he'll ever know the truth.
"I wanted some kind of closure and I feel like I may never get any closure because my mom's gone," Smith said.
The child's death remains under investigation.
