CHARLESTON, South Carolina, August 19, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) — Local law enforcement is investigating after the remains of two unborn babies were found at a wastewater treatment plant in South Carolina last week.

Workers at the Plum Island Wastewater Treatment Plant discovered a small human hand and then the rest of the baby’s body, along with a second baby, in the place where wastewater flows into the plant. The only way the babies could have gotten there is if they had been flushed down the toilet or put in a manhole, according to local officials.

The babies appear to be in the second trimester. A county coroner is examining them.

During the second trimester of pregnancy, babies begin to feel pain. Their mothers can feel them moving in utero. Their sex, which has been determined since the moment they came into existence at fertilization, can be determined thanks to ultrasound technology. They have unique fingerprints.

Babies born prematurely during the second trimester can often survive outside of their mothers’ wombs.