EXCLUSIVE: ‘The answers come if you just keep going,’ the officer leading the probe said
07:01, 15 Oct 2025Updated 07:15, 15 Oct 2025
Ashtons Field in Little Hulton where Baby Ava was found(Image: Manchester Evening News)
Beneath an ash tree, Baby Ava was buried in a 12cm deep grave. Tragically, she was found on top of a snow-covered field.
It is believed nature intervened. A badger, fox or large bird hunting for food in freezing conditions is thought to have brought her tiny body to the surface – just a day, or hours, after it was left there.
After 11 months of intensive work by scientists, police can now be certain as to the 20-day period in which Baby Ava was left at the entrance to a country park in Salford.
It is thought her body was kept elsewhere for a substantial period before it was left in the field.
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Today (Wednesday, October 14), the detective leading the investigation has revealed to the Manchester Evening News a potentially vital clue that could lead to the child – thought to be at 39 weeks gestation and possibly stillborn – being identified.
Baby Ava, named by police as the investigation began, was wrapped in a distinctive pair of women’s briefs. They are a size large, pink and beige in colour and have an unusual donkey design. Police say it is a possibility the mother may have worn them when pregnant.
Tests of the fabric have yielded a DNA profile. Ava was found by a dog being walked at Ashtons Field, Little Hulton, on November 21, 2024.
The briefs police believe could be a major clue in the Baby Ava case(Image: GMP)
The dog owner went to investigate what her pet had found, before phoning a relative in shock. She called 999 at 12.22pm. The location of the tragic discovery is just off Cleggs Lane, beyond a lay-by, on a bank of earth.
Detective Chief Inspector Charlotte Whalley, from GMP’s Major Incident Team, is leading on the case. “We have got to a point where we have more or less exhausted the various ‘ologists’ working on the case,” she said.
“What they have been able to narrow down – due to things like leaf litter and the soil type – is that Ava was placed, moved, to that site at Ashtons Fields no earlier than the beginning of November.
“So the time frame for movement to that site is from November 1 to November 20. That does not mean she was born at the beginning of November. She was very decomposed and a forensic pathologist has told us he cannot put a date on which day she was born.
(Image: GMP)
“What I suspect is that she has been at the Ashtons Fields site and she has been somewhere else beforehand. The level of decomposition indicates she could not have decomposed that quickly from November 1 to November 20. She has been somewhere else first.
“If she had been wrapped and put in a freezer the expert says it could have been two to three years before when she was born. She could have been kept in a house, in a fridge, there are so may options and that is why a forensic pathologist cannot tell me when she was born.
“I think there would have been a trigger for the movement of her [to Ashtons Fields]. Something happened – either her family moved or someone else found out.
“The work the scientists have done has been outstanding. Narrowing down the time when she was left has helped with the analysis of ANPR cameras in the vicinity. There is an ANPR camera just on the other side of the lay-by.”
Police are now working through the huge task of checking the details of thousands of cars driven past the lay-by over those 20 days.
“The experts suspect she has been in that hole,” DCI Whalley added. “When the lady found her she was lying next to the hole on top of the snow. It started to snow on Monday, November 18 at 6pm.
DCI Charlotte Whalley
“What park rangers have said is that animals start digging when it is cold and when they can’t get food on the surface. So the suspicion is, sometime after the November 18, an animal has come along, dug in that hole and moved her onto the surface.
“The strongest hypothesis is that she was buried there and an animal has come along and found her and taken her out. I do believe that the hole was manually dug because the striations in the hole are linear, which show that some kind of trowel or spade has been used.”
DCI Whalley said of the briefs: “They are quite distinctive. They have a design of little donkeys on them. We have established they are not manufactured in this country. They are imported wholesale into the country.
“My suspicion is that the person was wearing the large knickers because they were pregnant. We do have some DNA profiles from them. We have male profile, but when we have run it against the National Database they don’t ping.
“They would be good enough for a direct comparison if we found the person, but it is not strong enough for the database to give us an identity.
“If we ever find a suspect or anyone linked to Ava, we could rule them in or out with that DNA. We are still working on familial DNA as we have Ava’s DNA. We have got mitochondrial DNA – the female part of any DNA.
The ‘distinctive’ briefs(Image: GMP)
“If we find mum, because we have Ava’s DNA, there will be no argument that it is mum.”
DCI Whalley added: “I really would like to know her heritage, where she came from, who her mum and dad are. Ava’s hair is very dark, but because of the decomposition we cannot tell the colour of her skin.”
Work by an anthropologist, an archaeologist and dental and bone experts has helped discover an age for Ava.
“Because of the teeth work by an expert we know she is 39 weeks gestation,” DCI Whalley said. “She was full term. I suspect she was newborn and there is a possibility she was stillborn. As you can imagine, proof of life is very important and is one of the last pieces of work that is continuing.”
It is hoped further tests will establish if Ava was stillborn or died at a few days old.
Police are working through a list of people to see – all over the country – who are on a familial DNA list created from Ava’s DNA. Cops are cross referencing the cars of everyone visited, with CCTV of vehicles passing the location where she was found.
Ashtons Field in Little Hulton, where Baby Ava was found(Image: Manchester Evening News)
“It is a laborious and ongoing piece of work, but we are determined to check them all,” DCI Whalley added. “We have thousands of cars to check. We get the top 100 on a parent/child familial list and a sibling list and we review it every six months.
“We are knocking on doors, but every one we have visited has been really helpful. We have done ten 10 the moment and there are lots to come.
“What I have learned from these kinds of cases, and there are many around the country, is that the answers come if you just keep going.”
Ava’s grave was 12cm deep and 35cm by 31cm in size.
DCI Whalley said: “A detective who went out on this on the day Ava was found described it perfectly. She said it was like someone had got a hanging basket, put it in the ground and then pulled it up.”
Anyone with information is asked to contact police on 101 or 0161 856 2027, quoting log number 1319 of 20/11/24. Information can also be shared via GMP’s Major Incident Public Portal or Crimestoppers at 0800 555 111.