Police are still searching for a mother who gave birth on the banks of a dirty river late last month, as a criminal psychologist shares his disturbing theory about the case.
A dog walker stumbled upon the placenta and an umbilical cord on the banks of the Cooks River in Earlwood, south-west of Sydney, about 4.30pm on May 27.
Neither the mother nor the baby have been located despite desperate pleas from investigators for her to come forward to ensure their safety.
Criminal psychologist Tim Watson-Munro said police face an uphill battle to find the pair.
“If they don’t leave a fingerprint, if there’s no DNA evidence, it’s virtually impossible to trace them,” Dr Watson-Munro told Daily Mail Australia.
A leading criminal psychologist has warned it could be “virtually impossible” to find a missing mother who gave birth to a baby boy next to a dirty Sydney river (pictured, police at the scene)
Dr. Watson-Munro theorized that the mother could have faced a host of problems that caused her to disappear with the child.
“The ones that come to mind, family pressure, religious pressure, she may have hidden the pregnancy, it may be a matter of honor for the family,” he said.
‘That said, it’s a pretty extreme way to do it because you’re on the riverbank while trying to maintain your anonymity.
“Generally speaking, these kinds of things happen when there is fear, shame or anger,” he said.
“There may be anger directed at whoever the parent is, and sometimes there are financial pressures as well.
“To me, this refers to someone who is not quite right in terms of their emotions and their cognition.”
Police were alerted to the disconcerting scene more than two weeks ago after a dog walker stumbled across a placenta and umbilical cord next to the Cooks River in Earlwood.
Neither mother nor baby have been located despite extensive searches of the area and desperate pleas from police to come forward to ensure their safety.
The chances of police finding out what happened to the mother and child continue to diminish with each passing day, said former homicide detective Charlie Bezzina.
“The longer it takes for police to find the woman, the harder it will be to make sure they are both alive and well, or tragically dead,” he told Daily Mail Australia.
The former Victoria Police detective said similar scenarios have occurred due to social pressures, such as the baby being born out of wedlock.
However, he added that the circumstances that led to the birth could not be known without finding the mother.
“You never know the story or the background of why a woman had to give birth and she seems to have hidden it,” Mr. Bezzina said.
“By ruling out the placenta and evidence that a person has had a baby, it becomes clear that they are headed home or somewhere nearby. But we can only guess.
Police’s main concern would be that she could have “gone to a different location” outside the search area and died, according to Bezzina.
He said an even worse scenario would be that the mother “could have killed the baby and disposed of the body.”
“As time goes on, it becomes much more difficult and may never be resolved.”
Leading Sydney obstetrician Dr Stephen Morris told Daily Mail Australia the mother could be at higher risk of developing an infection given the birthplace.
Leading Sydney obstetrician Dr Stephen Morris told Daily Mail Australia the mother could be at higher risk of developing an infection given the birthplace.
Some sections of the Cooks River are heavily polluted as a result of traffic congestion, garbage, sewage, illegal dumping, and industrial and domestic activities.
“Water births are usually just tap water, and you can give birth in the ocean because of the salt water, but a river tends to be the worst place to give birth,” Dr. Morris said.
‘The uterus is a kind of open wound that comes out of the vagina, so if you immerse yourself in that water, it would be more dangerous.
“So if she went swimming or body-dived in the river, it would increase the risk of getting sick with an infection in the uterus.”
Dr. Morris explained that if the mother becomes infected, she may begin to feel feverish and, without medical treatment, this could progress to sepsis.
He added that an extensive police search of the area found nothing to indicate the baby was injured at the scene.