Officials seek DNA profile, try to trace path of severed arm

The mystery of the 6-inch-long infant's arm discovered at a local sewage plant deepened yesterday, as nearly two-dozen North Shore police departments searched for the baby's mother while forensics specialists sought clues in the flesh, bone, and genes of the tiny limb.

Workers at the Deer Island Sewage Treatment Plant in Winthrop found the remains in the massive sewage-processing machinery on Tuesday. State officials said the arm had been flushed down the toilet or dropped down a manhole or catch basin somewhere between East Boston and Bedford, a stretch of 21 communities.

Even seasoned police officers marveled yesterday at the needle-in-a-haystack search underway. State law enforcement officials asked the public in the 21 cities and towns, home to some 760,000 people, for tips about missing newborns or recently pregnant women who did not appear to be caring for a baby.

''There's not an awful lot we can do. I mean, where does one begin?" asked police Lieutenant Joseph O'Leary in Lexington, one of the communities whose waste water flowed into Deer Island Tuesday. ''It's very bizarre. I've been here for a lot of years, and I don't remember anything quite like this."

The working theory, said state law enforcement officials, was that an unwanted or stillborn baby had been discarded in the crudest of ways.

''At the very least, it's improper disposal of remains. At the worst, it's something much more serious," said David Procopio, spokesman for the Suffolk district attorney's office.

Yesterday, the state medical examiner, Dr. Mark A. Flomenbaum, took possession of the arm, which was severed at the forearm just below the elbow and has a fully developed hand.

In an interview, he said his team would seek to determine the infant's age, race, and gender and how the arm was severed, by scrutinizing its physiology.

He said that through X-rays and tests on bone and cartilage ''we might be able to get some determination of the age . . . whether it's consistent with a premature fetus, versus a neonate, or whether it's an older child."

Flomenbaum also said that if the arm had not deteriorated significantly, authorities will try to develop the infant's DNA profile.

''It's going to be difficult, but I don't think it's impossible," Flomenbaum said about eventually identifying the infant. ''It depends on what shows up [in tests] and how lucky we get and how lucky the police get."

Flomenbaum has some experience in such investigations: He previously worked in New York City helping to identify remains from the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.

Of the arm, he said: ''Chances are it didn't get there by natural reasons."

The arm's DNA profile could be matched with blood samples from newborns that are routinely collected and maintained by hospitals under public health protocols. The DNA could also be tested against missing child DNA data banks. Boston police said yesterday they would take a DNA sample from the arm and compare it with national databanks.

Some investigators suggested the arm may have been improperly disposed waste from a hospital, but other state officials downplayed that possibility.

Police throughout the region came up empty yesterday in their inquiries.

Officials in Belmont, Chelsea, Everett, and Revere said they had found no evidence suggesting that the infant's arm had been disposed of through the sewer system in their communities.

Chelsea police Captain Brian Kyes said it was possible that the infant had no connection to the community in which the arm entered the waste system.

''Obviously it's someone that was desperate. It could have been in their own residence, I guess, but then again, it could have been some type of accident while inside a mall, or, God knows, they were in a hospital for some reason and just panicked," Kyes said. ''God only knows."

State officials initially confined their search to East Boston, Chelsea, Everett, Winthrop, and Revere, which typically send their waste water through the North Metropolitan trunk line to the Deer Island plant. But because of maintenance Tuesday, sewage from 16 other communities, whose waste is normally treated at a Chelsea plant before arriving at Deer Island, was diverted through that line.

''It could have come from any one of those communities," said Michael Hornbrook, chief operating officer of the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority, which runs the system.

A series of increasingly wide pipes carries waste water from homes to street conduits and on to treatment plants, which process the waste before it is discharged. The arm was found at Deer Island on a screening platform, part of a massive conveyor belt machine that scrapes through wastewater to remove plastic, wood, and other materials.

Typically, the process is fully automated, but workers happened to be there on Tuesday and made the shocking find.

Grief counselors were on hand yesterday to help those workers.

''It's nothing we expect to see, and hope to never see again," said Gerry Gallinaro, deputy director at Deer Island.

Suzanne Smalley of the Globe staff contributed to this report. Raja Mishra can be reached at rmishra@globe.com.; John R. Ellement at ellement@globe.com.