No new leads in tracing abandoned newborn's family

There have been no new “significant leads” in trying to discover the parents of an abandoned newborn girl, police said.

Elsa was discovered by a dog walker on 18 January, wrapped in a towel inside a bag in east London.

The BBC and PA Media recently reported that the baby girl was a full sibling of two other babies also left in public spaces soon after they were born.

The Metropolitan Police said their parents remained unidentified and that recent reporting of the case prompted a “small number of calls".

Det Insp Jamie Humm said: "The investigation to identify the parents of the three babies found abandoned in Newham continues."

He added that police had gathered more than 450 hours of CCTV and spoken to members of the public and "numerous" partner agencies.

DNA work was also ongoing in an attempt to understand the children's potential ancestry, he said.

Officers from the Met said they were “keen to hear from anyone who has information that could help us get some answers for baby Elsa”.

Elsa was believed to be less than an hour old when she was found abandoned at the junction of Greenway and High Street South in East Ham.

She was given the name Elsa by hospital staff, after the character in the film Frozen, due to the sub-zero temperatures when she was found.

One of her siblings, Roman, was found in similar circumstances in a play area off Roman Road, Newham, in late January 2019.

The other sibling, Harry, was found wrapped in a white blanket in Balaam Street, Plaistow, in September 2017.

Harry and Roman – whose names have now been changed – have since been adopted.

Officers believe a woman seen in the area just before Elsa was found may have vital information.

She was wearing a large, dark-coloured coat with a light-coloured scarf or hood around her neck and was carrying a rucksack.