Embalmed fetus found in a laundry room

NEW ORLEANS -- New information was uncovered Tuesday about an embalmed fetus found in a laundry room at Charity Hospital Monday.

The male fetus was 20 weeks old, weighed less than one pound and could have been dead for more than a month, according to Orleans Parish Coroner Dr. Frank Minyard.

Minyard said the body had started to mummify, and he is especially concerned about the fact that it had been embalmed.

"They took organs out and stuffed the baby's cavity with cotton," Minyard said. "Usually a professional embalmer doesn't take all the organs out."

Minyard said most licensed embalmers work for funeral homes. He wants to know who embalmed the body and how it got to Charity.

"(The mother) evidently had some help, and they embalmed it themselves, or they took it to a funeral parlor," Minyard said. "We don't know."

One theory among hospital insiders is that a funeral home employee dumped the fetus at the hospital after being left with a prepared body that the family didn't have the money to bury.

"I'd like to know what happened to the organs," Minyard said.

Minyard is turning his findings over to police and the district attorney's office.

Right now, police do not consider the finding a criminal matter because the coroner didn't rule the baby's death a homicide.