Jan. 25, 2006 — V.I. Police made a gruesome discovery while investigating a reported illegal immigrant landing in Smith Bay early Wednesday.
Police found the body of an infant girl on the ground in the yard of a home near where the illegal immigrants were thought to have landed, police said Wednesday.
V.I. Police Department Spokesperson Sgt. Thomas Hannah said that at 2:30 a.m. Wednesday, the home's owner phoned police to report people, likely Haitian immigrants, in the yard.
The baby, found wrapped in a blanket, appeared to have drowned, said Hannah, who could not provide further details about the condition of the body. An autopsy is planned.
Hannah also could not estimate the infant's age.
Police are searching for an unknown number of immigrants, he said.
In 2003 the bodies of four Haitian immigrants were found near landing sites in St. Croix, Hannah said.
He said this was the first time in recent memory that a child's body had been found at a landing point.
From 2001 to 2005 Immigration and Customs Enforcement authorities detained more than 1,900 illegal immigrants in the U.S. Virgin Islands, said Ivan Ortiz, an ICE spokesman.
Immigrant landings have dramatically decreased in recent weeks, however, due to rough seas, said Coast Guard spokesman Ricardo Castrodad.