Search abandoned for NJ baby's body, lost in trash

Police who searched dumps in three states for the remains of a baby thrown out in a Jersey City hospital's trash gave up Thursday, saying they had little chance of success.

"We have come to the harsh reality that efforts to locate the remains of Bashere Davon Moyd Jr. would be a Herculean undertaking with little probability of a successful conclusion," Jersey City police Chief Thomas Comey said in a statement posted on the department's Web site.

Authorities had been looking for the baby's body since Jan. 2, when it was discovered missing from the morgue at Christ Hospital. The remains apparently were thrown away with the hospital's trash sometime between Dec. 21 and Jan. 2, police said.

They searched dumps in New Jersey and Pennsylvania before focusing on a landfill in Ashland, Ky., where the waste may have been transferred. On Wednesday, Comey said he feared the waste was sent elsewhere and may have been incinerated.

Hospital officials and police have declined to say exactly how the baby ended up in the trash.

"The investigation failed to uncover any evidence of criminal conduct, but rather indicated this unfortunate incident was the result of procedural deficiencies and human error," Comey said.

The baby was delivered Dec. 21. Hospital officials say it was stillborn, but the mother, 26-year-old Kalynn Moore, said her son was born alive with a weak heartbeat and died about 20 minutes later as doctors tried to save him.

Whether the child was stillborn is an important legal distinction because New Jersey law does not recognize stillborn babies as human.

Moore's lawyer, Michael Anise, has said that a lawsuit is likely. He maintains there is no reason for the body of a fetus to have been thrown into the trash.