Dominican authorities are searching for caretaker after bodies of 6 newborns are found near cemetery

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AP) — Police in the Dominican Republic said Thursday they are looking for a cemetery caretaker as part of an investigation into the bodies of six newborns found discarded near a cemetery in the capital of Santo Domingo.

Earlier this week, the spokeswoman for a nearby hospital said the institution had turned over the bodies of six newborns to funeral home El Popular for proper burial.

The country’s National Health Service confirmed to The Associated Press that the bodies turned over on Tuesday were the same ones found early Wednesday near the cemetery.

The owner of the funeral home, identified as Julián Encarnación Montero, told Noticias SIN that the bodies were taken to the cemetery and given to the missing caretaker.

He told the TV news station that he has a copy of the conversation in which the unidentified caretaker allegedly said he received the bodies and then forgot about them.

Authorities have said the babies died on different dates of different causes, and that parents sometimes don’t claim the bodies because they don’t have the financial resources for a burial.

Hospital officials noted that several weeks can go by between a death and a burial given that the institution contracts a funeral home once it has a certain number of bodies.