Australian Boy's Body Found in Suitcase

By ROHAN SULLIVAN, AP
Fri Oct 19, 2:05 AM EDT
SYDNEY, Australia —
A group of children found a boy's body stuffed into a suitcase and floating in a duck pond at a suburban Sydney park, police said Thursday.

Homicide Detective Superintendent Geoff Beresford said the unclothed body was in a fetal position in the bag and was wrapped in plastic. He put the boy's age at between 4 and 8.

He later said the child probably knew his killer and that the absence of a missing person's report suggested he was not kidnapped.

"You would have, I would think, parents or relatives reporting the child missing if it was your traditional abduction," Beresford told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio on Friday. "We're still open minded. We can't discount it, but the circumstances just don't fit the profile."

Beresford said witnesses had seen the suitcase floating in the pond in the city of Rosemeadow for at least two days, and that the body was in the early stages of decomposition.

"Put simply, it's one of the most monstrous acts imaginable," New South Wales state Premier Morris Iemma told the state legislature.

The group of about 10 children was playing in the park on Wednesday evening when they spotted the bag and pulled it to shore. One of the children told Australian television that they called police when they flipped the bag over and saw a pair of feet.

A post-mortem examination began Thursday to try to determine the boy's identity and how he died. Police divers also scoured the pond and found items including clothes and a knife. Authorities had yet to link them to the boy's death.

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