Fifty years on, cold case police officer Denver Marchant still haunted by dead baby in post case

FOR nearly 50 years, retired police officer Denver Marchant has been haunted by one of Australia’s most sickening cold cases.

FOR nearly 50 years, retired copper Denver Marchant has been haunted by one of Darwin’s most sickening cold cases.

Former NT Major Crime detective Denver Merchant is still haunted, by the "baby in the mail" story from 1965

At 73 years of age, he is only now showing his final ace in the desperate hope someone may yet come forward.

It is his final bid for closure.

On May 3, 1965, a package had been sent to the old Knuckey St post office from Russell St in Melbourne, with a return address of JF Barnes, 2 Woolridge Ave, Mentone, Victoria.

The package was a dead newborn boy, discovered on May 11 by postal clerk John Polishuk after a “J Anderson” failed to collect the mail.

Neither addressee has ever been found, if they exist.

Mr Marchant showed The NT News seven gruesome photos of the package in the mail room and in the autopsy.

They reveal the previously withheld information that the baby arrived in Darwin with a stocking tied around its neck.

“With cold cases, you can either let information out and the bad people will come out and admit to the crime,” he says.

“But you’ve always got to keep details in your pocket, that only you and they know.”

Why now, 49 years later?

“You never know. The media’s been responsible for bringing back a lot of old stuff which has resulted in closure.”

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But Mr Marchant says new leads were unlikely, and he has no idea where or how the unnamed baby was laid to rest.

“If you haven’t got evidence, you haven’t got much,” he said. “There’s the problem with putting things out there, because (you may lose) the likelihood of the person coming forward.”

Theories have abounded, with one of the strongest being a revenge from the mother in Melbourne to the deserted father in Darwin. “My guess is it’s probably a post-natal depression,” he said.

“I wonder what was the thought process of the lady who did it.

“I’d take a punt and say she was unbalanced.

“It struck me as bizarre.”

Mr Marchant watched the autopsy and he said the case would never leave him.

“Some of these things just stick with you,” he said.

“I can close my eyes and I was in the post office.

“As much as I’d like to have a delete button, it just stays with me.”

Mr Marchant spoke to the NT News on the ground-floor eatery of a Darwin hotel, revealing the package was opened about 2m from where he was sitting, on the site of the old post office.

“A clerk can remember stamping it, and it felt soft,” he said.

“It was a bizarre case. The Northern Territory is the home of bizarre cases.”

Mr Marchant now lives in Hervey Bay, Queensland, but was recently in Darwin for a South Darwin Rugby League reunion.