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Couple Faces Charges After Baby Found Buried In Shallow Grave In Jackson County

WATERLOO TWP. (WWJ) - A man and a woman are facing charges after their baby was found buried in a shallow grave in Jackson County, Michigan.

Officials with the Jackson County Sheriff's Office got a call from authorities in Dayton, Ohio, who said they had information from the parents that would lead to the child's body in the backyard of a home.

The couple, who had been living in Dayton, were questioned Friday night about the baby after police received an anonymous tip.

"The individual who contacted them felt that this man and this woman perhaps had done something to their child," said Jackson County Undersheriff Chris Kuhl. "At this point, Dayton police began investigating this...Once they made contact with these two individuals and began speaking with them, they realized that they used to reside up here in Jackson County, Michigan, and their child did pass and that this had all occurred up here."

Detectives, with help from the Michigan State Police Crime Lab, uncovered the baby's remains early Saturday morning behind a home in the 12000 block of Tophith Road in Waterloo Township.

Kuhl said investigators believe it was a boy, but that has not yet been confirmed.

He said, based on information from the suspect interviews and evidence found at the scene, the baby was six months to a year old and had been buried there for around five to seven months.

Authorities do not yet know how the child died.

"That's part of this investigation. We're going to have to try to establish a cause of death; if that can even be done based on the remains that we have,"  Kuhl told WWJ's Zahra Huber. "So that's what we're really working on right now is finding the history, the actual identity of the child — if any vital records exist — and if so, where."

Kuhl said the parents have thus far been charged with concealing the death of an individual and removing a body without a medical examiner's approval.

They remained held in Dayton on Monday as prosecutors were working to extradite them back to Michigan.

Sheriff's officials said the suspects' names and photos would be released following their arraignment yet to be scheduled in Jackson County.

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