Child's body found inside travel bag

 

Thursday October 18, 2007

 

Children playing in a suburban Sydney park have found the body of a small child stuffed inside a travel bag they fished from a pond.

The group of friends, aged about 10 and 12, pulled the floating black bag from the water at Rosemeadow, in Sydney's south west, about 5pm (AEST) yesterday, police said.

The children said they thought the badly bloated body was a pig before they levered it from the bag with sticks.

"We were riding on our scooters when a friend came up and said there was a dead pig down at the duck pond, so we went down to see," one of the boys told reporters at the scene.

"Me and my friend James here got sticks and flipped it over and then we saw that there was feet so we went up to our houses to call the police."

Detective Chief Inspector Garry Clark said the body inside the black travel bag was that of a small child.

Early reports suggest the bag was first noticed floating in the pond a few days ago, he said.

Police believe the body is that of a boy.

They are treating the death as a murder.

The body, which lay beside the large green pond while investigations at the scene continued, appeared to be partly wrapped in plastic and aged between five and ten years.

The park is surrounded by houses and is a popular recreation area for walking and cycling, attracting visitors from other suburbs.

©AAP 2007