A Missouri man cleaning out the home of his dead mom made a gruesome discovery in the form of a frozen human baby wrapped in a blanket.
That man, 37-year-old Adam Smith, found the dead infant in a box that he says his mom kept in the freezer as long as he can remember.
"It still had skin, hair and everything; it was mummified," he said to local KSDK-TV. "After that, I freaked out, put it in the box and called police right away."
He said that his mother had passed away from lung cancer just over a week ago. On top of that, he said his mom has lived in her St. Louis apartment for more than 20 years up until her recent death. He also stated he never bothered to look in the box until this past Sunday even though he and his older sister were always curious of its contents. He had been told it contained the top of a wedding cake.
When he got to the box, he says he snapped a picture that he sent to his girlfriend saying he was about to open it.
Smith claims that whenever his mom moved apartments, the box would move with her. He claims it took up about a quarter of every freezer it had been stored in.
"I'm more confused, angry," Smith said. "I just want to find closure. I want to find more answers."
KSDK is reporting that police are investigating it as a suspicious death. Additionally, an autopsy is set to be performed to learn how the baby died.
According to the St. Louis Dispatch, since discovering the child, Smith claims that he's learned several surprising things about his mother's past from his family members. He said he was told she had a pair of twins, and that one was stillborn while the other was given up for adoption.
"She would disappear for months at a time and not contact anyone from the family," Smith said.
He also claims that he contacted his estranged father on social media, and that his dad told him that his mother was "pregnant on their first date and that the next time he saw her, she wasn’t."
Smith says that his mom had revealed to him that a would-be sibling of his had died prior to his birth. He further states that when he was a kid, he asked her why she appeared to be sad as she was driving him somewhere.
"All I can remember is that she told me, 'My oldest child would have been 21 today,'" he said. "And that her name was 'Jennifer.'"
Following two hours of questioning by police, Smith provided a DNA sample. He had moved in with his mom in recent years to take care of her. He also said that he's nervous to continue looking through her belongings.
