The father of a 7-month-old baby carrying him in a backpack before tossing the boy's body into the East River on Sunday, Aug. 5. (AP Photo)
The father of a 7-month-old baby found dead in New York's East River had been carrying his son’s body around in a backpack before tossing the boy in the water near the Brooklyn Bridge, authorities said Wednesday.
NYPD Chief of Detectives Dermot Shea said the father then fled to Thailand.
During a news conference, Shea said James Currie, 37, was stopped by authorities when he landed in Bangkok and will return to New York by next week to face a felony charge of concealment of a human corpse. Additional charges could be filed against Currie depending on the results of the boy’s autopsy.
"This is a heartbreaking case," Shea told reporters.
A New York Police Department officer stands guard as authorities investigate the death of a baby boy who was found floating in the East River near the Brooklyn Bridge. (AP Photo/Robert Bumsted)
Currie was captured on surveillance video bringing the child into his home in the Bronx on Saturday around 1 p.m., and the boy appeared to be "fine," according to Shea.
Nearly 24 hours later, Currie then was spotted leaving his apartment complex wearing a backpack rigged like a baby- carrier and covered with a blanket. He was captured on surveillance video around 3:10 p.m. in Lower Manhattan carrying the backpack near the famed Brooklyn Bridge.
At about 4 p.m., police received a 911 call about a boy’s body floating in the water. The backpack was near the boy's body.
NYPD Chief of Detectives Dermot Shea said it was a "heartbreaking" case. (NYPD)
“There will not be a good ending to this story,” Shea said. “Our thoughts and prayers go out to the mother.”
The woman who first noticed the baby, Diana Campbell, of Stillwater, Okla., told the Associated Press her husband Monte waded into shallow water near the Manhattan shoreline, retrieved the baby and started CPR. First responders tried to revive the child, but he was pronounced dead at the scene.
"She just called me over and said there was a baby in the water," Monte Campbell told the AP. "I called 911. At that point, I thought it was a doll."
The boy's mother, who has not yet been identified, called 911 around 9 p.m. on Monday after Currie did not return her baby as part of their custody agreement, according to Shea. No previous reports regarding the child or the couple were filed with the city's children's services administration.
"We don't have any red flags that existed before this," he said.
Fox News' Ryan Gaydos and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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