‘Burnt child still unidentified’

AMMAN — Authorities on Wednesday said they were still trying to identify a child who was found burnt and possibly murdered in a building under construction in an Amman neighbourhood on Sunday.

The boy, estimated to be 12 years old, was fully burnt with the exception of his face, and a man found his body in the basement of a building under construction in Sweifieh, a senior judicial source said.

“We are still unable to determine the identity of the child and the probability of foul play is still high, especially after an official autopsy indicated that the child had multiple bruises on his head and suffered from internal bleeding,” the judicial source told The Jordan Times.

He added that no one has reported a missing child, “which is making the task of law enforcement personnel really difficult”.

“We suspect that the child might not be Jordanian and that is why there are no reports of missing children,” the source explained.

On Tuesday, the source added, an Iraqi woman came forward claiming that her child was missing, but “when we showed her the body she said it was not her son.”

“Despite not identifying the body, Criminal Court Prosecutor Baker Qaran ordered that DNA samples be taken from the woman for comparison,” a second source said.

Investigators want to make sure that the missing child is not the Iraqi woman’s son, the second source added, noting that  the DNA test results are expected to be out within a week’s time.

Qaran is supervising the investigation and following up on procedures, according to the source.