Crime & Safety
Abandoned Baby from Chicago Ridge Recycling Center to Receive Christian Burial
Preliminary findings from an autopsy on a baby boy found dead at a recycling center show the infant was less than seven days old and born premature. Police are continuing to investigate where the child came from.
A baby boy found dead inside a cooler at a Chicago Ridge recycling center will be laid to rest next week.
The Cook County medical examiner’s office is expected to release the body of the baby, who is being called Jeremiah Michael, to Glueckert Funeral Home in Arlington Heights on Monday.
The funeral Mass is scheduled for 11:30 a.m. Thursday at Our Lady of the Ridge Catholic Church, 10820 S. Oxford Ave., Chicago Ridge. Father Wayne Svida, pastor, and Father George Omwando, of St. Catherine of Siena in Oak Park, will be officiating. Burial is expected to follow the Mass at Holy Sepulchre Catholic Cemetery, 6001 W. 111th St.
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Preliminary finding from an autopsy conducted on May 2 showed the baby had been born sometime during the last seven days and was premature, police said. The baby was viable, if medical attention had been provided after his birth, despite being born prematurely.
Investigators are working to pinpoint where the child came from and who his parents are.
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Workers at Resource Management, 10111 S. Anderson Ave., found the body in the early morning of May 1, wrapped in a blue towel inside a small cooler. Chicago Ridge police have narrowed the locations of the garbage pick-ups to North Chicago, Waukegan or Pleasant Prairie, WI., as they search for the mother of the child.
A final report from the autopsy is pending the results of a toxicology test.
The cooler, towel and DNA samples of the body were sent to the Illinois State Police labs for analysis, police said.
Rest in His Arms Foundation, a nonprofit that gives Christian funerals and burials for abandoned babies, is supplying a burial gown and cradle casket.
Donations can be made in Jeremiah Michael’s name to:
- Save Abandoned Babies Foundation, 55 E. Erie, Chicago, IL 60611
- The Women’s Centers of Greater Chicagoland, 5116 N. Cicero Ave., Chicago, IL, 60630
Anyone with information is asked to call the local police department or the Chicago Ridge Police Department at 708-425-7831.
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