A former detective has revealed why a decades-old cold case was linked to a well-known AFL player – as he vows it’s only a matter of time before the ‘baby in the post’ mystery is solved.
Northern Territory Police are still investigating how the body of a baby boy wound up at a Darwin post office on May 11, 1965.
The decomposed and naked body was found wrapped inside a bunch of newspapers after staff noticed a foul smell coming from the package.
The umbilical cord was still attached to the baby, while a stocking was tightly wrapped around his neck.
The parcel was addressed to the Darwin Post Office, intended for someone named J Anderson.
The return address claimed it had been sent by a JF Barnes from 2 Woodridge Avenue in Mentone, Melbourne’s south-east – an address that detectives quickly learned was fake.
In 2023, former detective Denver Marchant, one of the original investigators, suggested to the True Crime Australia podcast ‘The Missing’ that J Anderson might have been former Aussie Rules player Jimmy Anderson.
After hearing the podcast, Jimmy Anderson’s daughter Amelia Anderson, then 53, came forward to offer a DNA sample.
Former detective Denver Marchant (pictured) took the Hail Mary step of suggesting Jimmy Anderson’s name to try and get the case moving again
Mr Marchant left Northern Territory Police in 1995 and now lives an active retired life in Hervey Bay, Queensland
A coroner gave permission for police to dig up the baby’s unmarked grave at the Darwin Central Cemetery in November 2023, and they managed to take a DNA profile from the skeleton.
For a few months the case seemed tantalisingly close to being solved.
In February 2024, however, police confirmed the baby’s DNA was not a match with Ms Anderson’s sample.
Mr Marchant, 84, who now lives in Queensland, told Daily Mail Australia that obtaining DNA from the baby was still a ‘small win’ for the cold case team.
A coroner had turned down an earlier request to exhume the remains, ‘without any appreciation of what DNA can achieve’.
So Mr Marchant took the Hail Mary step of suggesting Jimmy Anderson’s name, to try and get the case moving again.
He knew Mr Anderson personally before he died in 2017, and in 1965 there were only a handful of J Andersons in Darwin.
‘You could count them on one hand, and I suspect two fingers,’ Mr Marchant said.
Jim Anderson (pictured) played for the Darwin Buffaloes during the 1950s and 60s and won three premierships playing for the club
Amelia Anderson (pictured with her late father Jimmy Anderson) came forward to offer her DNA in a bid to solve the case
‘I mentioned Jim Anderson because he may or may not have been related – it turns out he wasn’t.
‘The rationale behind my putting it out there was I knew permission had not been granted for exhumation. It came to the stage I had to stick my nose in, and it worked.’
A DNA match was the ‘only chance’ of reaching a conclusion in the case, he said.
‘It still might take 10, 15 or 20 years, I don’t know – but sooner or later, it’s going to come up somewhere.
‘In my view it’s the only key to unlocking it, unless somebody makes a deathbed confession, and the chances of that are very low.’
Mr Marchant left Northern Territory Police in 1995 and now lives an active retired life in Hervey Bay, fishing and doing office duty at his local shooting range.
He insists the case doesn’t haunt him – but says it would be nice to see it closed in his lifetime.
‘It’s going to be hard work because there’s a pretty fair chance the perpetrator, the person that murdered the child, could well be long dead. But either way you’d get a result.’
The baby’s body was found inside a postal package (pictured) which was sent to a Darwin post office almost 60 years ago
The cold case team at Northern Territory police had done a good job, he said, and it was time for their counterparts in Victoria to take over.
‘It’s a Victorian case, it’s a Victorian murder – because the kid was murdered, there’s no doubt about that.
‘There would be no need of a ligature if the child was stillborn. That ligature was put there for a reason. Clearly the child was breathing.’
A Northern Territory Police spokesperson said their investigation was ongoing.
‘Northern Territory Police do not close cases until we are confident all avenues of enquiry have been exhausted when trying to identify remains.
‘At this stage the community can rest assured we are following up every possible avenue to identify these remains.’
A Victoria Police spokesperson said, ‘there is no change from our perspective and the matter remains with NT Police’.
Anyone with information can contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
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