A baby who reportedly had not been seen for several weeks has been found dead in a motel room in Adelaide.
A 40-year-old man and a 42-year-old woman were taken into custody on Saturday before appearing by bedside hearing at Adelaide Magistrates Court on Monday.
Both were charged with criminal neglect and concealing human remains.
Emergency responders reportedly found incense burning in the room when they arrived to investigate the disturbing discovery on Saturday morning.
Police were called to the Tollgate Motel just before 10.30am, where they found the body of a baby boy believed to have been aged between six and seven months.
Investigators said the infant had been dead for “a period of time”.
South Australia Police said preliminary inquiries suggested the man and woman had been living at the motel after arriving in the state at the start of the year.
“They have not had contact with South Australian authorities since this time,” police said in a statement.
Emergency services were called to Adelaide’s Tollgate Motel shortly before 10.30am, where a baby under the age of one was found dead inside a room
The Major Crime Investigation Branch is leading the police investigation, officers said.
The couple had apparently been staying at the motel for about a month. Other guests reportedly became concerned after the baby was not seen for several weeks.
Police do not believe the pair are originally from South Australia.
South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas said on Monday that neither the infant nor the family had previously been known to the state’s child protection authorities, while inquiries remained ongoing.
“Whenever a child or infant passes away, it is a tragedy beyond comprehension,” he said.
“I’m in a position to be able to advise this family and this child were not known to the South Australian Department of Child Protection, but there are still active inquiries underway across other agencies.”
Police Commissioner Grant Stevens said a post-mortem examination had been completed as detectives worked to establish what led to the baby’s death.
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“The post-mortem was completed yesterday. Our investigators have continued to work through it,” he said.
A 40-year-old man and a 42-year-old woman were arrested on Saturday
Commissioner Stevens declined to say whether more arrests were possible, explaining that it was too soon to comment on the developing case.
“This is a very sensitive ongoing investigation,” he said.
The commissioner also acknowledged the emotional toll investigations involving children can take on emergency services personnel.
‘It’s not just the family who are affected by this, it’s the responding police officers, it’s the detectives who work on the case, it’s the people that work in our health sector that have to manage those circumstances,’ he said.
‘People carry these incidents with them potentially for the rest of their lives.’
It is understood that between 18 and 20 of the motel’s 39 rooms are occupied by long-term residents, with some having lived there for more than a decade.
Motel resident Jacqui Fricker, who moved into the motel in January, told Adelaide Now she was shocked by the news.
Despite living just two doors away, the 55-year-old said she had neither seen nor heard the baby.
SA Premier Peter Malinauskas said neither the family nor the child were known to the state’s child protection system as investigations continued
‘I hadn’t heard crying or anything,’ Ms Fricker, a mother-of-two who receives a disability pension, said.
‘You just don’t know, I suppose, what’s going on with other people … just a couple of doors down. Occasionally you hear people fighting … but not a lot, normally it’s fairly quiet,’ she said.
Ms Fricker said she first became aware something was wrong when she heard a man shouting shortly before 10.30am on Saturday.
‘I peered out the window and saw that the police were here,’ she said.
‘That was the first hint of trouble, I didn’t hear anything prior to that. I didn’t think that would happen (here). There was just a big police presence all of a sudden.’