Two fetuses were found dead outside a man's home in California on Friday, law enforcement said.
David Branford said he initially thought someone threw out dolls when he came across the discarded bundle outside the front gate of his Fallbrook home at around 9 a.m., NBC San Diego reported.
But a closer look that afternoon revealed the bundle was two nearly fully developed fetuses wrapped in a blanket and left outside his home down the street from St. Peter's Church. Paramedics confirmed the fetuses were dead.
The San Diego County Sheriff's Department said the fetuses, possibly twins, still had both umbilical cords attached to one placenta, NBC San Diego reported.
A cause of death is to be determined pending an autopsy and homicide detectives are handling the case. The fetuses were at least 20 weeks old, the sheriff's department said.
"It's absolutely disturbing to hear something like that in a town where I live," Joey Wallace, a teenager who lives nearby, told the station.
Police are also searching for the mother, who would have recently been pregnant but is now without any child.
