Twin human fetuses were discovered abandoned in a treatment plant on Harbor Drive in San Diego on Thursday, police said.

Little was immediately known about how the fetuses ended up at the plant, but due to the nature of the discovery, homicide detectives were investigating, San Diego police homicide Lt. Matt Dobbs said. The county Medical Examiner’s Office will try to determine the age of the fetuses and how they died.

“Of primary concern at this time is the welfare of the mother,” Dobbs said in a statement. “The investigators are concerned the mother may have experienced some type of medical distress during the birthing process.”

Police were notified Thursday about the discovery of a human fetus at an undisclosed treatment plant on Harbor Drive, but when investigators arrived, they discovered the remains were those of twins, Dobbs said.


“The investigation is in the very early stages at this time, and the circumstances surrounding the tragic (deaths) of the fetuses are unknown,” Dobbs said.

The lieutenant said the incident is a reminder of California’s safe-surrender law, which allows for parents to anonymously surrender a baby to a fire station or emergency room within three days of birth — and allows the parents to reclaim the baby within two weeks.

The safe-surrender law makes it easier for a parent, who might otherwise abandon a baby in an unsafe place, to instead drop the infant off at a safe location. The law also protects parents from prosecution for child abandonment.

“It is not known at this time if the Safe Surrender Program would have prevented the death of the fetuses discovered today,” Dobbs said. “But it is obviously an opportunity to remind people of this life-saving program.”


This is the second time in recent years that the remains of twin fetuses have been discovered in San Diego County.

In 2015, twin girls — at least 20 weeks along in gestation and still attached to the placenta — were found outside a Fallbrook home.

The homeowner who discovered the bodies told detectives he initially thought he’d seen a blanket wrapped around a doll just outside his property. When he later checked, he found the girls.

Anyone with information about the fetuses discovered Thursday was urged to call the San Diego Police Department’s homicide unit at (619) 531-2293 or San Diego County Crime Stoppers’ anonymous tip line at (888) 580-8477.


Staff writer Lyndsay Winkley contributed to this report.