Sunday, May 18, 2008

Silence on Dead Baby At Excalibur

Catching up on the local papers that accumulated while I was in Florida, I was stunned to find a shocking little story buried inside the local section of the R-J several days ago.

Hotel workers at Excalibur found a dead newborn boy -- placenta and umbilical cord intact -- in the trash in a public bathroom. The corpse was wrapped in a pillowcase and stuffed in an Excalibur gift bag.

The baby was found on Mother's Day, May 11. The news seems to have broken about it on Monday evening on the Las Vegas Sun's website with this piece. There was that short, obligatory piece in the Review-Journal the next day. The Associated Press picked up the tale, too, giving it a little more attention.

And that's it. Nobody in the local media has followed up since even though, according to the AP story, "police say their best hope may be the public."

I'm not sure why this bothers me so much. It just seems like a bigger deal than has been made of it, especially considering I've lived in cities where abandoned baby corpses have become front-page news for days. Here's one in perhaps the most popular tourist corridor in the world, and nobody seems to much care.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think Las Vegas is one of the easiest places in America to get away with this, especially if they stayed aware of the omnipresent cameras, which it sounds like they did.
Now, we can't be bothering the tourists on their vacations with this. We are in a recession after all. And the locals think The Ex is the scariest place in the entire Valley, so they'll (a) believe anything they read happens there, and (b) they'll be too afraid to get near the place, much less care.
You are right, Steve. It should be front page news. Sad. Jeff Leatherock

Anonymous said...

There are other sources of media in Las Vegas. The stations did cover the dead baby along with their follow-ups.

Ch. 8 did a good follow that can be found here

Troy in Las Vegas said...

Remember Steve when we had the discussion about the illegal alien who blew up the other illegal alien over some domestic squabble on the roof of the Luxor parking lot? Remember when I asked you about if this stuff gets swept under the rug by the casinos 'cause they do not need the bad publicity and if the casinos pay off the news outlets so the tourists don't hear about it?
I stand firm in my opinion that I believe that to be the case. I think this sort of thing is a) covered up and b) we are desensitized to it.
It still baffles my mind how some people can be pregnant and hide it and then how does a mind work that thinks it is ok to throw a baby in a dumpster?
But really, do we need to splash this all over the newspapers and the television? Should we put it on Americans Most Wanted? Should we let American know how this happened and let them know it happens under their nose and/or that they can get away with it too? And thus perhaps loose even more tourist dollars so some illegal hot dog vender worker can get laid off from their casino job and not be able to afford a baby so they...?
Just asking...

Anonymous said...

Vegas gets away with murder when it comes to negative publicity. And I'm not sure how it happens.

The most amazing "non-national" story was the gang beating up tourists on the Strip. Plenty of coverage in Vegas, but never crossed over.

If any of these things had happened in, say, Atlantic City, it would be all over the major NYC and Philly papers.

Remember the controversy where the state was taking 9 homes via eminent domain? Front page news in Philly and NYC. In Vegas, they took thousands of homes and hundreds of businesses to widen 95 to Summerlin. Not a peep in any national press.

And what about the homes they took near the airport because the ostensibly needed to expand the airport? Whoops! Sorry. Let's just sell it to Walmart!

Seriously, what's the hold LV has on the national media to report only the good stuff?