Teen parents arrested for baby death
Two teenagers from New South Wales have been arrested over the death of a baby girl at Brooklyn Park, in Adelaide's western suburbs.
Superintendent Tom Rieniets, Officer in Charge at Sturt Police, said the couple, the mother, 17, and the father, 19, went into a Families SA office yesterday where they told staff their baby had died.
Families SA then reported the death to police.
Ambulance officers had to smash their way through the glass front door to get inside the unit, where the baby was found dead.
Supt Rieniets said the baby had been dead for about a week.
"There are a number of questions that we have that are unanswered," he said, "At about 11 o’clock this morning a post-mortem was conducted and that’s still ongoing."
He said the results of the post-mortem was expected late today or tomorrow.
"They’ve both been arrested for concealing the death initially… and we’ll be opposing bail at this stage," Supt Rieniets said.
"We have some injuries that we are looking into at the moment, but it is too early to speculate."
Neighbours say the couple had only been living at the unit for a few months and were always seen with the baby.
"Obviously people saw and heard the couple coming and going and we’re speaking to a number of people in relation to what may have been occurring around the premises," Supt Rieniets said.
The young mother appeared in the Adelaide Youth Court this afternoon and did not ask for bail.
And the father appeared in the Adelaide Magistrates court, he has been remanded into custody and will appear in court again next week.
