To be glad they are upping efforts to find this mother

I’m not a detective. I’m just relaying the information I have heard through various news coverage. But the police don’t just randomly decide someone is in an area without good reason. I’m sure there is plenty of information known about this case that hasn’t been made public because the public don’t need to know.

But if someone was planning to do something like this, might they not carry the baby in something like a big shopping bag, rather than a pram or sling or anything else that reads as "person with baby" on CCTV?

@ElsvietaThey are sure of the location because of the lack of CCTV. Where the babies were left has no CCTV coverage. They checked CCTV covering the wider area and didn’t find any sight of them, so conclude they are coming from within the small area not covered. However I believe more CCTV has now been added in that area recently.

If it was incest they'd be able to tell from the DNA testing (although whether they'd release that information at this stage is of course another question).

I think either SEN issues or maybe some sort of culturally-influenced thing, like she's in a community where having children while unmarried is not accepted, and she's in an illicit relationship. I mean, it's not usually people in stable long-term relationships who end up abandoning the babies. So if they all have the same father, there's something about the relationship that's being hidden. And if she doesn't live with him (like maybe because he's married) or even see him on a very regular basis, it's just about possible he doesn't even know about the babies / had no involvement in dumping them.

Oh yes. With the child torso in the Thames case ("Adam") they were able to narrow it down to South-West Nigeria.

Not sure why they're so sure she's living in this one small bit of London though. I reckon if I were trying to abandon a child (or anything else) and not be traced, I'd walk at least a mile or two from home.

I really think they need to do a lot of investigation into the circumstances before they reunite them IF the mother is ever found.

How very sad. I hope they find the mother and are able to reunite her with her babies.

I'm glad they said today that the woman may be being 'restrained from coming forward' rather than just not wanting to,and that they said the mother was a 'victim'.

I fully agree with you that the public do not need to know about this search. A softly softly approach is needed so the “perpetrator” is not scared off, be it the mother or someone controlling her.

We have a case in Ireland where a newborn baby was found on a beach in Kerry stabbed 28 times in 1984. It took almost 40 years but they found the parents, in their late 50s and early 60s, still living locally, via DNA from a sample given voluntarily by their son.
The case is still being investigated.
The father of the mother of the baby was an Irish police officer apparently, we now know but didn’t know when there was a big investigation many years back into the whole case and the wrongful arrest of an innocent woman and her family.
Google The Kerry Baby case for more information on it. Utterly heartbreaking. 🥲
As is this case.

Identifying for example that both parents are Somali, or both Yoruba, would narrow down the number of possible households. Even in London there are only a few '00,000 Somalis, possoble 10k Yoruba, and the majority won't be living in that specific area.

I don't think the general public need to know about this search, police should work to find the parents and then see what is going on before publicising things that may create more chaos. What if a range of families in that area suddenly start moving due to fear of police action? Or the mother is put at risk and moved? Or other women start being suspected who are not the mother? There is a real risk of unintended consequences. Appreciate they want to "save" a possible future baby, but this doesn't seem like a sensible approach.

On how they’ve identified 400 houses, it’s probably because there is other functioning CCTV in the area. I know places that are constrained because of park railings or train lines meaning that the in and out points are clear.

I hope the police making search details public doesn't jeopardise her but I suspect they have the area under surveillance so might help to flush her out or whoever is holding her to make a move.

When the 3rd baby was found the police reported that they’d make sure parents were both of African background

They are. When the 3rd baby was found the authorities said they’d make sure they would be in contact as they grew up.

They have had a DNA test, and are full siblings. As in, same mother and father.

I really don’t see how.

I think it would put her in more danger.

I heard this on the news yesterday and I was actually wondering why they had said so much information about her being in likely 400 houses

if shes in an incredibly vulnerable situation surely covertly/discreetly searching the houses for someone kept against their will is a possibility ? Or another vulnerable situation?

I really don’t want them to publish her ethnicity

Doesn't it go without saying that the more they know about the ethnicity of the children the more it might speed up the search for the parents?

I'm sure all possible tests will have been done to narrow things down.

I'm j intrigued as to how they identified such a specific number of houses they think the parents live in

There is clearly more to this than the police are saying (rightly).
It is possible that the mother knows children are not safe in their home, maybe due to the potential for abuse - she might have been a child in that home - or because they’re not “allowed” if it’s a domestic service scenario.
There have been some high profile court cases where people imprison people they bring from their home county and coerce them into staying as they have no money or visa.
It sounds like the mum is suffering regardless and I hope they find her soon.

Agreed. I thought it was inappropriate.

For whom? It’s not going to assist the neighbourhood at large.

I agree. It is tragic. A very worrying situation. I am glad the babies are safe, of course, but I worry for the mother.

It would narrow the field of potential parents. Pretty obvious really.

I think Fritzl did that (except he abadoned them on his doorstep.)

The abandoner probably isn’t heartless enough to kill a baby but also knows keeping them is not possible.