Autopsy results performed on a baby’s remains found sealed in containers in an apartment determined that the infant had been dead for close to a year.

As CrimeOnline previously reported, a Lawrence County deputy made a gruesome discovery in a Fountain Inn, South Carolina, apartment on Monday, while serving eviction papers to a female tenant. Inside the apartment, the deputy found sealed containers with the remains of an infant inside. One container was put inside another container and then sealed, likely to mask the smell, according to authorities.

According to Laurens County Coroner Nick Nichols, the infant was a newborn, around 38 weeks gestation. WSPA reports that the coroner indicated that the decomposition stage of the infant showed that the baby had been dead around 10 to 11 months.

Original Story

A South Carolina landlord fled an apartment crying on Monday after a Lawrence County deputy made a gruesome discovery in a tenant’s Fountain Inn apartment while serving eviction papers. Remains of a deceased infant were found in sealed containers, inside the apartment.

WSPA reports that Fountain Inn authorities arrived at the Fountain Hills Apartments on Chapman Road and confirmed that seal containers were found in a third-floor apartment where a female tenant, recently evicted, lived.

“The landlord was coming down and she was just crying,” Bianca Jackson, a resident at the apartment complex, told WSPA “I’m like, ‘Miss Reina, what’s wrong?’ And she was like ‘Bianca, there’s a dead baby up there.”

Detective said they still aren’t sure how long the remains and containers sat in the apartment, but Jackson indicated that she could smell the foul odor of death when authorities opened the lids of the containers.

“You could actually smell it coming down once they lifted the tops open.”

Fountain Inn Police Capt. Michael Hamilton said the given the age of the victim, officers are being offered grief counseling if needed.

“It’s very sad and very difficult for officers and investigators to have to go in and do their job and determine what took place,” Hamilton said.

The story is still developing. Check back with CrimeOnline as additional details become available.

[Feature Photo: Google Maps/Aug. 2012]