TRAGIC new details have emerged after a baby boy was found wrapped in newspaper with twine around his neck by a builder.

The unidentified tot was discovered under the floorboards of a home in Bishop Aukland, Durham, in July 2024.

An inquest was opened into the death of the baby boy after a contractor recovered his skeleton with investigators hoping to obtain a DNA profile that could help them track down living relatives.

Detectives had been awaiting results from carbon dating analysis on the bones to confirm the year the baby died.

One type of radio-carbon dating revealed that the baby was born before the first atomic bomb tests in New Mexico on June 16 1945, the inquest heard.

Adding to the mystery, another type of radio-carbon dating indicated a range of possible dates that the baby lived as between 1726 and 1812.

The cause of the baby’s death remains “unascertained”, but DNA samples confirmed it was a 38 to 40 week full-term male foetus

It is unable to be determined if the baby was stillborn or not but it was confirmed he was “not alive during the nuclear era”, the inquest heard.

A court was told the baby boy had been wrapped in a newspaper dated in June 1910 called The Umpire.

Dad-of-six David Dent, who discovered the tragic tot’s remains, said he suffers haunting flashbacks to the day he found the baby boy.

David said the baby’s skull had a full set of teeth, which he didn’t realise newborns had.

The contractor believes the baby boy had been strangled due to the strand of twine around its neck, he said: “It’s been strangled, you can see that.”

Due to the twine cops treated the death as suspicious with cops attempting to trace historic records for the property between 1900 and 1920 as part of efforts to identify who lived there at that time.

Detective Chief Inspector Mel Sutherland, from Durham Constabulary, said in August last year: “The evidence suggests this has happened a very long time ago, which makes investigating the circumstances extremely difficult, but we still have a duty to that baby.

“My focus is on finding out who the baby is, what happened and how it came to be under the floorboards of that house.

“As soon as we are able to, I am determined that this little baby is given an appropriate and dignified funeral.”

Durham Constabulary and Durham County Council are currently arranging a burial for the baby at Bishop Auckland Town Cemetery.

The unidentified tot’s funeral will be held on the afternoon of Monday, April 27.

The inquest into his death has now been adjourned until May 18.