Garden Of Angels Organization

He never had a name. Just a number. Coroner's case No. 973193. But the infant found in a trash can on the southeast corner of Olympic Boulevard and Broadway in downtown Los Angeles received the dignity in death that he was denied in life. Finally given a name by police, Baby Michael and two other abandoned infants were buried Saturday by strangers determined to see that children who die unloved at least do not go unmourned.

He never had a name. Just a number. Coroner's case No. 973193. But the infant found in a trash can on the southeast corner of Olympic Boulevard and Broadway in downtown Los Angeles received the dignity in death that he was denied in life. Finally given a name by police, Baby Michael and two other abandoned infants were buried Saturday by strangers determined to see that children who die unloved at least do not go unmourned.

He never had a name. Just a number. Coroner's case No. 973193. But the infant found in a trash can on the southeast corner of Olympic Boulevard and Broadway in downtown Los Angeles received the dignity in death that he was denied in life. Finally given a name by police, Baby Michael and two other abandoned infants were buried Saturday by strangers determined to see that children who die unloved at least do not go unmourned.

He never had a name. Just a number. Coroner's case No. 973193. But the infant found in a trash can on the southeast corner of Olympic Boulevard and Broadway in downtown Los Angeles received the dignity in death that he was denied in life. Finally given a name by police, Baby Michael and two other abandoned infants were buried Saturday by strangers determined to see that children who die unloved at least do not go unmourned.

A crowd of 50 people, mostly strangers, cried, prayed, listened to poems and became a family for the three abandoned babies buried Saturday. The bodies of Amanda, Angelita and Paloma--names given to them by those attending the service--had been discovered in the Los Angeles area in the last four weeks. "There were more people here to show these babies love than their parents ever did," said Gilda Tolbert, an investigator for the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office who attended the ceremony.

Debi Faris says she remembers the story of each of the 48 children she's buried. Since 1996, she has been recovering the bodies of murdered and abandoned babies throughout Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Riverside counties and burying them in her private Garden of Angels in Riverside County's Calimesa Cemetery. "Every child has a story," said Faris, 46, of Yucaipa. "And every child is given a name. We give them a proper burial service to build a circle of love around the child.