Shella Morina, Tia Maya Affrita, Ahmad Yudianto
The number of unwanted pregnancies globally remains high. This is one of the contributing factors to the frequent discovery of decomposing newborn bodies, which can make forensic examinations challenging for pathologists. In April 2022, the body of an unidentified baby, wrapped in a plastic bag, was found in the bushes. An autopsy was conducted following a visum et repertum request. The examination revealed a decomposed infant with a fully formed earlobe, fingernails extending beyond the fingertips, female genitalia with the labia majora covering the labia minora, and ossification nuclei present in the distal femur, proximal tibia, and cuboid bone. Wreden’s test also indicated the presence of air inside the middle ear cavity. Based on these findings, it was concluded that the baby was born alive, with a gestational age of 9–10 months. © The Author(s) 2025. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
Forensic Medicine and Medicolegal Study Program, Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Airlangga, East Java, Indonesia; Department of Forensic Medicine and Medicolegal, Faculty of Medicine, Widya Mandala Surabaya Catholic University, East Java, Indonesia; Department of Forensic Medicine and Medicolegal, Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Airlangga, East Java, Indonesia