Bits & Pieces

Woman finds mummified baby in storage DELRAY BEACH, Fla.-A woman cleaning out her dead parents’ rented storage unit discovered a partially mummified baby boy, wrapped in a 1957 newspaper and stuffed inside a suitcase-within-a-suitcase. The body will be sent to a forensic anthropologist to determine the cause of death and whether the baby was born alive, authorities said Tuesday.

Woman finds mummified baby in storage

DELRAY BEACH, Fla.-A woman cleaning out her dead parents’ rented storage unit discovered a partially mummified baby boy, wrapped in a 1957 newspaper and stuffed inside a suitcase-within-a-suitcase.

The body will be sent to a forensic anthropologist to determine the cause of death and whether the baby was born alive, authorities said Tuesday.

The daughter who found the body Monday night “was a little rattled at first” and wondered to herself, “Could this be a sibling?” said police spokesman Officer Jeff Messer.

“It’s obviously a concern of hers,” Messer said. “Based on the condition of this baby, it could really be 50 years old.”

The storage unit had been rented by the couple in 1996. The man died several years ago and the woman, who was in her 70s, died last year, Messer said.

The couple’s daughter had flown down from New Jersey after receiving a letter warning that the contents of the storage unit would be auctioned off because the rent had not been paid for several months, Messer said.

“As they were cleaning it out, she came upon a big suitcase, opened that suitcase, found another smaller suitcase, opened it and found a baby wrapped in a newspaper,” he said. Messer called the discovery “spooky.”

Authorities would not release the names of the couple or the daughter.

According to investigators, the child was wrapped in a newspaper called the Daily Times dated Jan. 9, 1957. They believe the paper was from New Jersey or New York.

Messer would not say whether DNA was extracted from the baby to be compared to the daughter.

Messer said investigators would interview friends and family of the couple to determine if the elder woman was ever pregnant with another child and kept it secret. But he also noted that others may have had access to the warehouse.

The Adventures of the Nuge!

AUSTIN, Texas-Ted Nugent says Gov. Rick Perry had no problem with his decision to wear a Confederate flag shirt during his appearance at last week’s inaugural ball-and even complimented his performance.

Nugent, 58, said Perry talked to him backstage after the black-tie event, complimenting him on “the greatest rock ‘n’ roll” and thanking him for coming, several newspapers reported Tuesday. The governor also called over the weekend, ending the conversation by telling Nugent to “give ’em hell,” Nugent was quoted as saying.

Perry spokesman Robert Black said the governor wouldn’t wear such a shirt, but told Nugent he has the right to wear whatever he wants.

“If you’re going to defend freedom of expression, then you’re going to have to defend all freedom of expression,” Black said.

When asked if Perry would have invited Nugent if he had known what he would wear, Black said: “Yes.”

Gary Bledsoe, president of the Texas chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, has criticized Nugent’s decision to wear the shirt, saying it symbolized “the enslavement of African-Americans and more recently the symbol of hate groups and terrorists.”

Nugent, a hunting and gun rights advocate, lived in Michigan most of his life before moving to Crawford in 2003. The “Motor City Madman” is famed for his 1977 hit “Cat Scratch Fever.”