Man whose newborn baby’s body was found in a box at church sanctuary tells of the tragedy and his ‘shocking moment’
A man who discovered the body of a newborn baby inside a “hot cradle” for abandoned babies in a church in Italy has spoken out about the tragedy.
On the morning of Thursday, January 2, Roberto Savarese, a 56-year-old funeral director from the Italian city of Bari, was the first person to discover the body of a one-month-old baby boy in a baby box in St. Paul’s Church . Church of Giovanni Battista.
Savarese spoke to People about the moment he discovered the baby, recalling that he and a funeral home employee curiously looked at the box and discovered there was a baby inside.
“At 9:20 on January 2, we were there for a funeral that we were having, and I was telling one of my new staff members about the thermal cradle that the diocese has,” Savarese said. “So I said, ‘Come on, I’ll show you,’ and I opened the first little door – it didn’t have a lock, it was open for anyone who needed to come in from the outside.”
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“I opened the door and there was this baby’s body in the cradle. He was dead,” he recalled. “At this point I immediately closed the door without going in and called the emergency services. They intervened immediately.”
According to Savarese, he and his staff were “shocked” by the discovery of the baby.
“The moment I found the baby, I was in shock, I just saw him, immediately closed the door and called for help. I didn’t even notice if the heating system was working,” he said. “My new colleagues were understandably shocked. As soon as I noticed the baby I closed the door and called the emergency services. Soon the whole avenue was blocked off – it’s not a very long street , about 100 meters.
According to Italy’s Ansa news agency, the box is similar to the Safe Harbor baby boxes used in the United States, which will immediately alert the church once a baby is placed inside.
Although authorities previously said they believed the person who left the baby did not close the door to the room where the cradle was located, meaning the alarm did not go off as expected, letting the parish priest, Father Antonio Ruccia, know the baby was there – Savarese claimed the door would not stay open on its own.
“The door is absolutely closed, not open as some have suggested,” he told People. “The system is designed with an automatic closing mechanism — it cannot stay open on its own.”
Google Maps
Church of San Giovanni Battista in Bari, Italy
Lucia previously told ANSA news agency that he was in Rome at the time of the incident and that his phone – which was connected to a cradle – never rang.
The 56-year-old added: “Investigators must establish why the alarm system did not work and whether the heating system was working properly. “Everything was put in place to prevent this from happening, but somehow it still happened. Something went wrong.”
Savarese also told People magazine that the baby boy is about 25 days old, appears to be white, and is “fully formed.”
“Based on my experience, I believe the baby had been dead for about two days when we found him,” the funeral director added. “During Christmas the area around the church was particularly empty – the priest went to Rome. [The baby boy] If we hadn’t inspected the bassinet that day and tried to show it to my new staff, there’s a good chance it wouldn’t have been discovered much later.
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Savarese said Bari, in the Puglia region, was “shocked and devastated” by the boy’s death, revealing that media members from Italy and around the world had contacted him about the incident.
“I had a funeral this morning in another parish,” he told People. “I drove there and everyone looked at me and then they started approaching and asking me. Everyone wanted to know about this tragedy because they were all shocked.”
ANSA and CNN previously reported that police were still investigating and would conduct an autopsy on the baby to determine how and when he died. Barrie police did not immediately respond when contacted by PEOPLE.
republic According to reports, the church’s baby box had been successfully used twice before this incident: once on July 19, 2020, and again on December 23, 2023.
Sasaneli/ROPI via ZUMA Press
Investigators collect evidence at the scene in Bari, Italy
“Another baby girl was recently discovered over Christmas, but it was going well,” Savarese recalled. “She was adopted, as was another child who was found not too long ago.”
The church added the cradle after the body of a baby was found on a beach in the nearby town of Monopoli in 2015, ANSA news agency reported.
As for Savarese, he and others in the local community are devastated as they try to make sense of this rare tragedy.
“This deeply affects everyone in the community,” he said. “It’s especially shocking when babies are involved. This is a very serious matter that touches us all.”
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