Scotland - Baby's Body Missing from Coffin Exhumed for DNA tests 42 ys after burial

[Gardener1850]

A mother who has been fighting for 42 years to find out what happened to her dead baby's remains has discovered his coffin was buried with no body in it.

Lydia Reid was granted a court order for an exhumation to be carried out at the burial plot in Edinburgh last week but no human remains were found.

The exhumation was conducted by respected forensic anthropologist Prof Dame Sue Black.

Her report concluded that the coffin was buried without human remains.
Ms Reid said the news was "devastating".

During the exhumation, Prof Black found a shawl, a hat, a cross and a name tag in the burial plot at Saughton Cemetery in Edinburgh, as well as the disintegrated coffin.

The internationally-renowned forensic scientist said there were no skeletal remains and no sign of decomposition.
She told BBC Scotland: "Ultimately there is only one possible logical explanation and that is that the body was not put in that coffin."

Ms Reid's son Gary died at seven days old at Edinburgh's Sick Kids hospital in July 1975.

Ms Reid, now 68, said that when she asked to see her son she was shown a child that was not hers.

"I objected but they said I was suffering from post-natal depression," she said.

"This baby was blonde and big, my baby was tiny and dark-haired. This was not my son."

Ms Reid has campaigned for years to find out what happened to her son.

Read more: http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-41122888

 

[kaen]

Wow. I hope she gets justice and finds her son.

 

[LadyL]

oh boy ... I wonder what she has uncovered

 

[MsFacetious]

So did her baby not die and get adopted out? What is her theory here?

 

[Elainera]

So did her baby not die and get adopted out? What is her theory here?

Maybe this (from article in post #1):

She was a leading figure in the Scottish push to expose how hospitals had unlawfully retained dead children's body parts for research.

The NHS in Scotland was forced to admit the widespread practice after an investigation into organ retention at Alder Hey hospital in Liverpool.

About 6,000 organs and tissues were retained by Scottish hospitals between 1970 and 2000, many from children.

Ms Reid continued to suspect her son's organs had been taken without permission but she has never found proof.

That alone is shocking. But now to find that an empty casket was buried. That poor woman!

 

[MsFacetious]

If they just took the organs why didn't they bury the body?
Does this mean a funeral home was in on it?
Or was it the hospitals responsibility to put the child in the casket?
I'm so confused right now.

 

[Damarna]

So did her baby not die and get adopted out? What is her theory here?

I'm almost thinking it might have been adopted out? Why would they show get a baby that wasn't hers? Or is she not remembering correctly?? Such a sad story!

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

 

[jjenny]

I'm almost thinking it might have been adopted out? Why would they show get a baby that wasn't hers? Or is she not remembering correctly?? Such a sad story!

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

Considering she long believed the baby's body wasn't in the coffin, and she turned out to be correct, what makes you think she isn't remembering correctly? Seems like there is no problem with her memory.

 

[Gardener1850]

Considering she long believed the baby's body wasn't in the coffin, and she turned out to be correct, what makes you think she isn't remembering correctly? Seems like there is no problem with her memory.

I don't think she expected the coffin to be empty. I think she was shown a deceased baby that was not her baby and she believed that baby was placed in the coffin. She petitioned to get DNA tests done to prove that they had buried the wrong child. I think she believes her son died but was taken for his organs or medical research. I have to wonder if he really was alive and illegally adopted OR if perhaps he did die but his death was the fault of the hospital and someone wanted to cover that up so they disposed of the body to hide their error. Either way, I think they did not expect her to demand to see her baby at the time. JMO. :moo:

 

[musicaljoke]

How awful that there were two babies that died at the same time! Even 42 years ago, it was not that common for a baby to die at birth.

 

[Elainera]

They already admitted that they often took organs and tissue samples, I wonder whether now that an empty coffin was found they'll be forced to admit that they in fact gave whole bodies to research. But then the funeral home(s) would have to be in on it too, as someone pointed out above. I wonder whether they'll dig up more graves from that time now to verify if this is the case.

 

[Elainera]

I hadn't seen this before. She suspected all along that the coffin was empty:

Lydia Reid, 68, says she knew her son Gary was not in his coffin at his funeral.

“The coffin was light. I knew the weight of a baby. My son was not there. Again, nobody believed me,” Ms Reid told the BBC.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/lydia-reid-exhumation-empty-coffin-a7926271.html

 

[1&2&3]

Did she not see her baby in the casket?

The funeral home would have been the last one to have had responsibility for the body and casket. They would then leave it at the cemetery for burial, so who was in cohorts with the hospital?

1975 wasn't that long ago and it's not like it was the dark ages. I had a child in 1976 in the USA. Sounds like this poor lady has been royally screwed over! I just can't imagine!!

 

[jjenny]

Did she not see her baby in the casket?

The funeral home would have been the last one to have had responsibility for the body and casket. They would then leave it at the cemetery for burial, so who was in cohorts with the hospital?

1975 wasn't that long ago and it's not like it was the dark ages. I had a child in 1976 in the USA. Sounds like this poor lady has been royally screwed over! I just can't imagine!!

Since the coffin was in fact empty, which she suspected from the start because it didn't weigh much, it stands to reason that she didn't see the body in the casket.

 

[MelmothTheLost]

I'm almost thinking it might have been adopted out?

That's not impossible but to be honest I'd see it as unlikely. At this time it was still very common for unmarried women, especially teenagers and students, to give up babies for adoption because of the lingering stigma over unmarried motherhood and because there were few provisions made in universities for students who got pregnant to be able to both keep their babies and continue their studies. As late as 1980, one of the women I was at university with ended her studies because she became pregnant and didn't want to have an abortion or give up the baby.

There was no shortage of healthy babies for adoption at this time.

 

[TechWriter797]

Perhaps her baby was given to the couple whose baby died.

 

[Elainera]

Meeting promised by government over empty coffin case

The first minister has promised the government will meet with an Edinburgh mother who discovered her dead baby's coffin was empty after being buried 42 years ago.

Ms Sturgeon said: "It is very difficult for any of us who haven't gone through experiences like this to fully appreciate and understand the distress that Lydia Reid and any others in a similar situation would be experiencing and I can only imagine what that must be.

"Clearly there has been some work around issues of this nature in the past, but I will give an assurance today that the relevant minister will be happy to meet with Lydia Reid to see what the Scottish government or our agencies can do to try to ensure that she gets the answers that she certainly deserves and will personally feel she needs in order to allow her to move on from this revelation.

"I will give that assurance to the member today, and will take steps to ensure that meeting happens as soon as possible."

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-41188102

 

[Gardener1850]

[h=1]'It's all I have left of my son' Grieving mum who found her baby's coffin empty demands post-mortem sample[/h]

A mum who fought to exhume her baby son’s coffin only to find it was empty wants his post-mortem samples sent for independent DNA testing.

Lydia Reid had demanded that tissue taken from her son Gary Paton after his death in 1975 should be analysed to confirm they are really his remains.

Police investigating the missing body want to send the samples to a company they use for DNA testing.

But Lydia, 69, fears the samples could be lost or damaged and she wants her own preferred firm, Cellmark, to do the work.

She said: “They are the only evidence that we know of that is still in existence.
“I want them tested for DNA as I want to know if there is any part of my son there.
“I want them to go to Cellmark because afterwards, they give me the legal right to have them back. Police Scotland do not give me that right.
“All I want to do is give my son a Christian burial. I can’t take the chance of them being lost or damaged.”

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/grieving-mum-who-buried-empty-11390890

 

[Elainera]

A mum who campaigned for over 40 years to exhume her baby's coffin only to find it empty is taking legal action against the NHS to get back all that is left - tiny tissue samples.

Tireless, Lydia has now instructed solicitors to take legal action on her behalf against NHS Lothian and Scottish Crown Office.

She believes they have the only remaining parts of her son, and she's desperate to finally lay him to rest.

Lydia said: "I am trying to raise funds to get the remaining parts of my son back.

Edinburgh mum's legal battle to bury son who died just seven days old

 

[Gardener1850]

A year later and she is still fighting for this? Poor Mum.
I'm beginning to wonder if they have no samples to give her.
Maybe they were long ago destroyed or maybe someone knows the samples are not her son?
Could her baby have been illegally adopted out?
I wonder if she has tried getting a DNA test to look for close relatives she might not know about... I would do that on the off chance my baby was out there in the world. She could find out she is a grandmother and not know it. JMO.