The man who found a newborn’s dead body inside a “thermal cradle” left for abandoned babies at an Italian church is opening up about the tragedy.
Roberto Savarese, a 56-year-old funeral director from the Italian city of Bari, was the first person to discover the body of the 1-month-old boy on the morning of Thursday, Jan. 2, inside a baby box at San Giovanni Battista Church.
Savarese spoke to PEOPLE about the moment he discovered the baby, recalling how he and an employee from his funeral parlor were looking into the box out of curiosity when they saw that there was an infant inside.
“Well, we were there at 9:20 on Jan. 2 for a funeral we were carrying out, and I was telling one of my new staffers about the thermal cradle that the parish had,” Savarese says. “So I said, ‘Come, I’ll show you,’ and I opened the first small gate — which isn’t locked, it’s open for easy access from outside for those in need.”
Related: Newborn Baby Boy Found Dead Inside Box Left for Abandoned Babies at Church: Reports
“I opened the door and I noticed that there was the corpse of this baby in the cradle. He was already dead,” he recalls. “At this point, I closed the door immediately without going in and called the emergency services. And they intervened immediately.”
According to Savarese, he and his employee were both “shocked” by finding the baby.
“In that moment of shock when I discovered the baby, I just saw him, closed the door immediately, and called for help. I didn’t even notice if the heating system was working,” he says. “My new colleague was understandably shocked. After I noticed the baby, I immediately closed the door and called emergency services. Soon, the whole avenue was blocked off — it’s not a very long street, about 100 meters.”
According to Italian news agency Ansa, the box — similar to Safe Haven Baby Boxes used in the U.S. — is supposed to send an alert to the church as soon as a baby is placed inside.
Although authorities previously said they believed that the person who left the baby didn’t close the door to the room where the cradle was located — meaning the alarm wasn’t triggered like it was intended, to let the parish priest, Father Antonio Ruccia, know the baby was there — Savarese alleges that the door can’t stay open by itself.
“The door was absolutely closed, not open as some have suggested,” he tells PEOPLE. “The system is designed with an automatic closing mechanism — it can’t stay open by itself.”
Google Maps
San Giovanni Battista Church in Bari, Italy
Ruccia previously told Ansa he was in Rome at the time of the incident, and his cell phone — which is connected to the cradle — never rang.
“The investigators will have to determine why the alarm system didn’t function and whether the heating was working,” the 56-year-old added. “Everything that could have been done to prevent this was in place, but somehow something still went wrong.”
Savarese also tells PEOPLE that the baby boy was about 25 days old, looked to be Caucasian and was “fully formed.”
“Based on my experience, I believe the baby had been dead for about two days when we found him,” the funeral director adds. “The area around the church was particularly empty during these Christmas days — the priest was away in Rome. [The baby boy] could have been found much later if we hadn’t checked in on the cradle that day in an attempt to show it to my new staffer.”
Related: Infant Surrendered at Safe Haven Baby Box in Kentucky Less Than 2 Months After It Was Installed
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Bari, located in the Puglia region, has been “shaken and shocked” by the boy’s death, Savarese says, revealing that members of the press from Italy and across the world have reached out to him about the case.
“This morning I had a funeral in another parish,” he tells PEOPLE. “I arrived there with my vehicles and everyone was looking at me and then they started to approach and ask me. Everyone wants to know about the tragedy as they are all shocked.”
Ansa and CNN previously reported that police are still investigating and an autopsy will be carried out on the baby to determine how and when he died. Bari police did not immediately respond when contacted by PEOPLE.
La Repubblica reported that the church’s baby box has been successfully used twice prior to this incident: once on July 19, 2020, and again on Dec. 23, 2023.
Sasaneli/ROPI via ZUMA Press
Investigators collect evidence at the scene in Bari, Italy
“Another baby girl was found also during a Christmas period recently, but it went well,” Savarese recalls. “She was adopted, as was the other child who was found a time ago.”
The cradle was added at the church after a dead baby was discovered on a beach in the nearby town of Monopoli in 2015, Ansa reported.
As for Savarese, he and the rest of the local community have been left reeling as they try to make sense of the rare tragedy.
“This has deeply affected everyone in the community,” he says. “When it involves a baby, it’s particularly shocking. It’s a very serious matter that has touched us all.”
Read the original article on People
