Dead Fetus Found In Shallow Grave After Suspicious Young Couple Spotted With Shovel

The body of what appeared to be a small human fetus was found in a shallow grave in a Texas park. The discovery was made after witnesses reported seeing two individuals, believed to be teenagers, behaving suspiciously in the wooded area in Brenham.

Police officers were dispatched to Hohlt Park at around 4:45 p.m. Sunday and on arriving at the scene, spoke with the witnesses who reported seeing suspicious activity in the area, according to KWTX News 10.

The witnesses said they spotted two individuals, believed to be male and female teenagers, walking out of the woods and making their way to the parking lot. The individuals were carrying a shovel, according to the witnesses, who then decided to call the police to report the suspicious behavior.

Officers searched through the wooded area and managed to find a shallow grave with the dead body. Soon after, detectives from the Brenham Police arrived with crime scene investigators to survey the location and collect evidence to be processed.

Darrylidrea Roper, a resident who lives across the road from the park where the body was found, reportedly said a police officer spoke to her and her sister following the discovery. The officer asked if they had seen anyone in the area with a shovel, Roper said.

"We've never seen anything like that," Roper told ABC13. "We saw a lot of police trucks."

The remains of the deceased infant were sent to the Fort Bend County Medical Examiners' office for an autopsy. Additional witnesses are also expected to be interviewed as part of the investigation.

A similar incident was reported in 2021 after a 34-year-old woman was arrested for stuffing her infant in a suitcase and burying her in a shallow grave in the Eastern Cape region of South Africa. Neighbors alerted the police after they noticed that the woman was no longer pregnant but found no baby in her house. Police managed to locate the unmarked grave and dug it up to reportedly find the infant alive as she was wrapped in a blanket.