Man discovers remains of baby in box shoved in mother's freezer

ST. LOUIS — A man made a shocking discovery when he was cleaning out the freezer at his mother's St. Louis apartment after she died.

Adam Smith told KMOV he opened a box that had been shoved in the back of the freezer for decades, or for as long as he remembered.

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"I was always told it was a wedding cake top," Smith told KSDK.

It also could have been money since Smith said his mother didn't have a bank account, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.

But it wasn't a cake topper or cash. It was a baby wrapped in a pink blanket, KSDK reported.

Smith said the baby had skin and hair and appeared to be mummified.

"Who does this? Who absolutely keeps their own child in a box for this long and never talks about it," Smith said to KMOV.

He said the box had been in every freezer his family had owned.

"I've asked her several times. It was either a no-no conversation or blew me off. My mom has always been secretive about things, about life," Smith told KSDK.

Smith remembered his mother telling him about a sibling who died before he was born.

Family members are also shedding light on his mother's secrets.

Smith's mother had twins, one of whom was stillborn. The other was given up for adoption, the Post-Dispatch reported.

"I'm finding out my mom wasn't who I thought she was," Smith told the newspaper.

He has also reached out to his father to tell him about what he had found.

"He told me my mom was pregnant on their first date and that the next time he saw her, she wasn't," Smith told the Post-Dispatch.

He believes that the remains found frozen in the freezer were those of his sister as he works through the emotions of the disturbing find.

"I'm more confused, angry. I just want to find closure. I want to find more answers," Smith told KSDK.

Smith called the police once he realized what he had found. An autopsy is being done to find out how the baby died, KMOV reported.

Smith also gave police a DNA sample to see if the baby is related to him, the Post-Dispatch reported.

Smith told the Post-Dispatch he was afraid to keep going through what his mother left behind, not knowing what other secrets will turn up.

"I picked up a sock and felt something in it," Smith told the newspaper. "But it was just cigarettes she was hiding from me."

Cox Media Group