How long can the corpse of a baby or a very young child be at sea? The answer will be given by the coroner who this Wednesday will carry out the autopsy on the body that a municipal cleaning worker found on the beach of Roda de Berà (Tarragonès) on Tuesday morning. And the answer may help to solve the mystery surrounding the minor, a question that the judicial police of the Civil Guard of Tarragona are investigating.
The body had been on the beach for more than a day. In fact, some regular bathers said yesterday that they had already seen the embalum on Monday, covered in sand, but that they thought it was a rag doll whose head had been ripped off.
But at half past nine in the morning a cleaning worker who went to collect the debris discovered that it was actually human remains. He alerted his superiors, and they, 112, and from then on the police and judicial operation was activated. The municipal police of Roda de Berà cordoned off and protected the beach area and alerted the judge on duty, who also notified the forensics and the Civil Guard of Tarragona, in charge of the investigation. The Mossos d'Esquadra also made an appearance, as did the Civil Protection.
The coroner will try to determine the causes of death, the origin of the minor, the age and the time he was in the water. They will also try to find out if it was a violent death of a criminal nature.
The body retained what appeared to be pajamas or a baby garment. Clothing will also provide valuable information. "He doesn't wear the clothes that are appropriate for being on the beach", assured the mayor of Roda de Berà, Pere Virgili, who attended to practically all the media. The politician assured that the minor was wearing, in addition to a bodysuit, "a kind of tracksuit and also a jacket".
The first thing the investigators did was to quickly consult the list of minors reported recently, not only in the Tarragona area, but also on both sides of the mouth of the Ebro.
All hypotheses were open last night at the investigators' table. The mayor was the most daring and did not rule out that the victim could come from the wreck of a migrant boat, a really complicated option, although not impossible.
"That it is not related to the discovery a few days ago of the remains of a woman...", predicted Virgili. Just over a week ago, the dismembered corpse of a woman appeared on Miracle beach in Tarragona, an investigation also undertaken by the Civil Guard.
Meanwhile, Vendrell court number 7 has opened an investigation and the judge is waiting for the forensic and police reports.
Another key piece of evidence to advance the investigation will be the DNA analyses, which could be compared with those of the corpse of the woman found on Miracle Beach.
The corpse appeared at the southern tip of the Costa Daurada beach, next to the breakwater of the port of Roda de Berà and very close to the popular Roc de Sant Gaietà development.
At noon some bathers found clothes, slippers and some toys. They deposited all the items in a bag and waited for the return of the Civil Guard to rule out that it had anything to do with the child's body.
Today Tarragona and its surroundings are excluded from the routes of human traffickers. That is why the thesis that the body was dragged by the tides to Roda de Berà, although not impossible, is less likely. And not only because of the great distances in miles, but also because the sea is full of predatory species that would hardly have respected the body of a minor.
