Discovery of baby in trash leaves homeless man stunned

Francis Lewis, the homeless man who discovered the lifeless body of a newborn baby boy while he was rummaging through a drum containing garbage last Thursday, said that he felt bad by his unexpected find.{{more}}

Speaking exclusively to SEARCHLIGHT yesterday, “Lewis said he collects waste food from garbage disposals for sale to dog owners.

He said he discovered the newborn male child in a bin just outside the abandoned BAICO construction site, at the rear of the Inland Revenue Department office.

The umbilical cord of the baby was still attached.

“I was bunning a little something under the [BAICO] building, and I relax a good time.

“Then I decide to search through the trash, looking for a little waste food and thing.

“Then I go to the bin and two light bags was on it. I lift them off cause I see a bag there and it still good nuh, so I lift it up and it feel heavy.”

Lewis, a popular character in Kingstown who indicated that he was raised in Mount Grenan but has lived in Kingstown a “good while now”, said that instead of tearing the bag open as he normally would, he decided to feel the bag from the outside first, because of a “mystic feeling” he had.

“It feel soft, but I wasn’t sure … because sometimes you meet dead dog in them… so I didn’t open it harsh…” Lewis said.

After carefully opening the bag, Lewis found a “four corner blanket”, which concealed the infant.

“It ain’t no mat. Is something like a spread that you rest ‘pon the ground if you don’t want to rest pon yo bed…

“So I open the back, and the first thing I see was the hair; black nice hair. It was a good size baby.

“I was a little stonish, so I just stay dey because I can’t move. I dey a good time watching it, watching it. I coulda leave it, but I decide to inform to someone.”

Lewis said that some time later, a female employee of the Inland Revenue Department exited from the side door of her workplace, and he summoned her to show her what he had found.

“… And then she felt bad and she call the police,” Lewis said.

Lewis said he believes that he could have seen something, if he had come to the area a little earlier.

He also said he believes that he could have stumbled upon similar discoveries, but there were some bags he decided against opening, because of their strong odour.

Lewis said he was born on January 4, 1985.

He, therefore, made the grim discovery one day before celebrating his 28th birthday.