The body of a newborn, believed to be about a month old, was discovered in a baby box at the Church of San Giovanni Battista in Bari, southern Italy.

Baby boxes, introduced in 2006, allow women unable to care for their infants to leave them anonymously in heated cribs at hospitals and churches.

The tragic discovery was made by a local funeral home director passing by the church. The box, designed to alert the parish priest when a baby is left, failed to trigger its alarm. Father Antonio Ruccia, the church’s priest, explained that the system should automatically activate a heating mechanism and send a notification to his phone. However, this did not occur. The funeral director, noticing the baby box door was ajar, alerted the priest, who contacted the police.

Authorities are investigating whether a system malfunction prevented the alarm from working or if the baby was already deceased when left in the box. Police noted the person who abandoned the child failed to properly close the door, which may have affected the system’s functionality. A post-mortem examination will determine the cause and timing of the infant’s death.

Baby boxes trace back to the 13th century, when infants were left in a “ruota” or wheels embedded in church walls. This practice continued until the 1950s when children’s homes closed, replaced by legislation allowing anonymous childbirth. Women could leave their babies in hospitals without facing legal consequences.

Father Ruccia noted the baby box at San Giovanni Battista was last used in December 2023, when a baby girl, later named Maria Grazia, was safely left.

“No one can imagine the pain of realizing you cannot care for your little one.”

 Authorities continue to investigate the case.