Mother kept skeletal remains of newborn in storage unit rented 27 years ago; arrested

A Tennessee woman has been arrested after skeletal remains of a newborn baby were found in a storage unit she rented nearly three decades ago.

Melissa Sims McCann from Tullahoma has been charged with the abuse of a corpse and disposal of a corpse in violation of the law. Authorities believe that the 62-year-old gave birth to the baby at her home in March 1994, and soon rented the said storage unit at Watts-N-Storage at 1004 Old Estill Springs Road in Tullahoma to hide the remains of the infant.

The remains were only discovered last month when the storage unit, which consisted of a single cooler, was being auctioned off, and Tullahoma police officers were called about an unidentified skeleton. Coffee County District Attorney Craig Northcott said in a press release that it was not readily apparent that the remains belonged to a human. They had to be sent to a medical examiner's office who determined it belonged to a newborn.

"Officers with the Tullahoma Police Department discovered that she [Sims] had rented the storage unit for the sole purpose of storing the remains of her full-term newborn baby, which she delivered at home, a few days prior to renting the unit," he said.

The baby's cause of death has not been determined yet and could take months to complete. It was unclear if DNA testing on the badly decomposed remains is possible.

The District Attorney's statement added that additional indictments will be sought for the accused if further investigation establishes evidence of other crimes committed by her.

McCann appeared in Coffee County Circuit Court for arraignment on Friday, December 17, but did not have an attorney representing her, after which it was decided that she would appear in court at a future date. If convicted for abusing a corpse, a class E felony, she could face between one to six years in prison, reports Inside Edition.

District Attorney Northcott described the case as "heartbreaking" and said, "This is the first one of this nature that I have handled personally. I hope we can give this baby a little bit of a voice."