A family doing housecleaning last week found something unexpected in the attic: a dead infant.

WASHINGTON – A family doing housecleaning last week found something unexpected in the attic: a dead infant.

The discovery was made Friday afternoon in a home on Royal Oak Drive in the La Plata area of Charles County.

Diane Richardson, spokeswoman for the Charles County Sheriff’s Office, says the infant’s body has been sent to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Baltimore for an autopsy.

In March, a dead infant was found in the trunk of a car in the Prince Frederick area of Calvert County.

A source with knowledge of the investigation tells WTOP that the mother involved in the Prince Frederick incident has connections to the home in La Plata.

Richardson says the sheriff’s departments in Calvert and Charles counties are trying to find out if the two are related.

Charles County detectives say they are working to identify the mother of the baby found in the attic, and whether it’s the same mother as the baby found in Prince Frederick.

The cause of death has not been determined, police say.

WTOP’s Ari Ashe contributed to this report. Follow @WTOP on Twitter.

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