Jess

I'm struck by this wariness I've touched on for something that happened so long ago.

It's only when I start to dig into the laws around child abandonment that I begin to see things more clearly.

Now, I know this might sound simplistic, but I simply hadn't thought of this story as a crime.

For us as kids, any police involvement was just about helping to reconnect mother and baby, almost like a missing person case.

And the police were keen to find the missing mother, but Jess's abandonment was still investigated as a crime.

The roadside verge was treated like a crime scene.

You see, it's an offence to abandon a child under two if it endangers their life or causes them harm.

That's punishable by up to five years in prison.

Then there's a broader offence of cruelty to a person under 16, including neglect, ill-treatment or abandonment.

And for that, you could get 10 years.

And because we don't in the UK have a statute of limitations for serious crimes, someone can be prosecuted today for abandoning a baby back in 1987.

This case was never actually solved, so new information, fresh evidence, or a recent forensic technology like DNA could open it up again.

You and I know that we don't want... That's absolutely not the motivation.

Neither of us wants that.

Yet several former police officers seem genuinely concerned that my reporting of this story may have a real life effect, a fresh criminal investigation.

All of a sudden, the stakes feel much higher.

I check in with Jess.

She's still certain that she wants to tell her story and to try and find answers to the questions she's been asking for years.

I write again to all the retired police officers, assuring them that neither Jess nor I are looking to reopen the case, that we're not seeking new evidence.

But they don't change their minds.