Skeletons of babies found in Australian house

November 8, 2000
Web posted at: 9:25 AM HKT (0125 GMT)

ADELAIDE, Australia (Reuters) -- Australian police said on Wednesday they would search an old house again after skeletons of three babies were found under the floorboards, but dismissed speculation the discovery could finally resolve one of the country's most mysterious crimes.

Police said the remains found under the house in the southern city of Adelaide could have been more than 50 years old. They said forensic tests were under way to determine how old the babies were when they died and how long they had been buried.

"We can't say just how many months old these babies were at this stage...but certainly there is no doubt they are very young babies," detective superintendent Paul Schramm told Australian Broadcasting Corp (ABC) radio.

Police searched the house immediately after being alerted by the owner at the weekend and Schramm said they planned to scour the house and immediate area again on Wednesday to ensure no other remains were buried.

Investigators were trying to find and interview previous owners, he said.

Police dismissed speculation that the find could solve one of Australia's most mysterious crimes, the 1966 disappearance of three children -- Jane, Arna and Grant Beaumont -- from an Adelaide beachside suburb.

"Clearly it is not connected in any way, shape or form to the Beaumonts or any other unsolved murder that we are looking into," Schramm said.

Trevor Terrell, the owner of the house, found the remains at the weekend while he was doing renovations.

"I pulled up the carpet when I saw a kind of trapdoor in the corner of the room next to the fireplace," he told The Advertiser newspaper.

"Then I saw what I thought were old crab shells, but they were skulls. They'd been wrapped in wallpaper and there was something like an old knitting needle holding it together."

Australia's worst serial killing was uncovered in South Australia in May 1999 when the bodies of eight people were found in an old bank vault in the country town of Snowtown north of Adelaide. Another three bodies were later linked to the case.

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