The Missing Australia: Former cop believes he knows who grisly package was meant for

This package contained something so horrific it made Australian criminal history - and now an ex-cop believes he knows who the grisly surprise was meant for. Listen to the podcast.

It is a gruesome mystery spanning almost six decades.

Just who posted the body of a newborn baby in the mail? And who was the intended recipient?

It’s a case that has haunted former police officer Denver Marchant for 58 years and he finally believes he knows who the J Anderson is that the parcel was addressed to.

The parcel – sent from Melbourne’s Russell St post office on May 3, 1965 – sat in a Darwin post office for eight days, with staff only calling police after noticing a putrid smell.

Inside the package lay the decomposing naked body of a newborn boy with his umbilical cord still attached and a stocking wrapped tightly around his neck.

The return address of JF Barnes, 2 Woolridge Ave, Mentone, Victoria, was fake and no fingerprints could be extracted from the package.

The package contained the body of a newborn baby that had been strangled.

“There was one J Anderson and I actually knew him,” Mr Marchant tells The Missing podcast.

Now 83, Mr Marchant suspects J Anderson was a sports-loving man he knew as Jim – although it was never proven.

“He was certainly a wonderful sportsman and could turn his hand to any sport pretty much and he was a nice guy,” Mr Marchant tells former policeman turned investigative reporter Meni Caroutas in the second episode of The Missing Australia podcast.

Denver Marchant hopes the baby in the post mystery will one day be solved. Picture: Tony Gough

“Jim and I got along quite well. But as far as sporting attributes are concerned, he was a long way out of my league,” he said.

Mr Marchant said he never asked Mr Anderson about the baby because there was “absolutely nothing he’s done wrong”.

“There was no offence, no offence at all in the Northern Territory, so it can be shaky ground talking to someone about things like that … He’s done absolutely nothing wrong, it’s just merely an association with the child.”

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Mr Marchant believes the killer was a man close to the baby’s mother.

“My bet is that it was done by a partner, either a partner or somebody, somebody in the picture somewhere, husband, lover whatever.”

He always thought the force of the strangulation showed “a degree of malice or certainly ill feeling towards whoever the father was”.

Despite the progression of time, Mr Marchant can still vividly recall seeing the baby’s body.

“I’d never seen anything like it in my life … The thing that struck me immediately was a ligature around the neck … [that was later] ascertained to be a stocking,” Mr Marchant said.

“The child’s neck would have probably had a diameter of about an inch I suppose, it was that tight.”

The grisly parcel shocked Darwin.

The manner of death, the ferocity of the killing and the fact the baby’s body was posted through the post from one side of the country to the other meant there were few, if any, comparisons.

“I don’t think there’s any other case in Australia to have such a bizarre thing ever happening and it’s something that just really sticks with you,” Mr Marchant said.

Jim Anderson has since died, but has children who are still alive.

That means there is potentially familial DNA to compare the baby’s DNA against – leaving this cold case close than ever to finally being solved.

LISTEN TO EX-COP’S THEORY ON BABY IN THE POST

Denver Marchant was the police officer in charge of the crime scene in 1965.

Victoria Police said it was awaiting advice from the NT Coroner to advance the investigation, with any new information about the baby’s death to be “thoroughly assessed and investigated”.

The Missing has attempted to contact Anderson’s family but not heard back.

Do you know more? Call Crimestoppers on 1800 333 000.

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Originally published as The Missing Australia: Former cop believes he knows who grisly package was meant for