FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. _ They're calling her Baby June. She was 7 days old, at the most, and had been in the water for less than 24 hours. She likely drifted for miles from Broward County waters to Palm Beach County.
These are the latest details revealed in the mystery of the newborn baby girl whose naked body was found floating in the ocean near the Boynton Beach Inlet last week.
Sheriff's detectives on Thursday held their second news conference this week about the infant. They revealed:
_ The baby likely came from waters off Broward County.
_ She was 4 to 7 days old.
_ She was in the water about six to 18 hours before her body was found.
_ She was of mixed race or black. It's unclear if she was Hispanic.
The infant with black hair and dark skin was discovered last Friday afternoon about 100 feet from shore and a half-mile north of the Boynton Beach Inlet. An off-duty firefighter found the child's body while out boating about 1:30 p.m.
The conclusion that the baby had drifted from Broward County was "scientifically based," investigators said. They didn't detail how they figured it out.
She likely was born around Memorial Day in either a hospital, a doctor's office or with a midwife, said Detective Steven Strivelli, captain of the Palm Beach County sheriff's special victims unit.
"I came here before you today in asking Broward County's assistance, especially the public, in identifying the baby and her parents," he said.
Strivelli declined to reveal how the child died.
The state Department of Children and Families also has opened a child-death investigation.
Who the infant's parents are, how she ended up in the water and how she died are the major, still unanswered, questions.
Investigators reiterated their plea for the public's help in finding the child's parents. Their message to the parents: "We desperately need to talk to you. We need to find out what happened. We are not going anywhere."
