MERIDEN, Conn. (WTNH) -- In the cold and the snow, it's easy to imagine what it was like 26 years ago today when a newborn boy was found dead in Meriden. 
 
 "The child was found on the ground near a tree, wrapped in a blanket on the morning of January 2, 1988," retired Detective Sergeant Keith McCurdy said. 
 
 On a day colder than today, the baby soon froze to death. The local clergy named him David Paul, which means God's beloved little man. The police department took up a collection for his burial. 
 
 "The Meriden Police Department unofficially adopted this child and cared for this child's burial," McCurdy said, "and we think David Paul represents all the children who are abused, neglected or abandoned." 
 
 David Paul was blond, blue-eyed, and full term. The former Chief says he would have gladly adopted him into his family. Police never found his mother, never identified him, and never charged anyone in his death. But every year since 1988, they've come here to pay their respects and remember. 
 
 "It shows our commitment to the baby and to the children that we represent every day in the community," said Lt. Salvatore Nesci, Meriden Police Department, said. 
 
 Since then, the state has made it clear that new moms can go to any hospital and they will take care of the baby no questions asked. 
 
 As for the idea that David Paul has come to represent all the kids police have sworn to protect, they say that is even more important this year, just a little over a year since the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary. ||||| Meriden police, church remember abandoned baby 26 years later 
 
 By Lauren Sievert Record-Journal staff 
 
 MERIDEN — Members of the police department and a local church gathered in the freezing weather to remember the baby boy abandoned in a parking lot in 1988. 
 
 Retired Police Chief Robert E. Kosienski attended the memorial service at Walnut Grove Cemetery with about 20 members of the Meriden police department and the Rev. Alden Barnes, pastor of First United Methodist Church. Kosienski said he remembered the morning he got the call about the baby found abandoned in a South Meriden parking lot on Jan. 2, 1988. 
 
 “He was found frozen to death,” Kosienski said. “Why would a woman do that?” 
 
 Kosienski said his first reaction when he got the call was shock. He later found out the mother carried the baby to full term, and he had blonde hair and blue eyes. Kosienski said the massive effort to find the mother was not to punish her, but because the police believe there was “some kind of trauma” that led her to abandon the child. The baby was named David Paul, which means “God’s beloved little man” in scripture, and was officially adopted by the city police department. The child was buried in Walnut Grove Cemetery. 
 
 Barnes said this year at the memorial service he read a prayer for children, keeping in mind the recent one-year anniversary of the Sandy Hook tragedy as well. “This death put a light on how vulnerable children are at all ages in this society,” Barnes said. 
 
 Barnes said a man attended the memorial service and said he was interested in the Safe Haven law that was passed in Connecticut in 2000. Mothers can voluntarily drop off infants under 30 days old at a hospital with no requirement to identify themselves. The infant will go into the custody of the Department of Children and Families.
– It's a 26-year tradition now in Meriden, Conn., and one with a somber start: On Jan. 2, 1988, police found a newborn boy frozen to death outside. He had been wrapped in a blanket, but the full-term baby with blond hair and blue eyes stood no chance in the frigid weather. Police took up a collection and paid for his burial, reports WTNH, and members of the local clergy named him David Paul. Today, as they have on every Jan. 2 since then, police and others in the community gathered at the cemetery where the baby is buried. "The Meriden Police Department unofficially adopted this child and cared for this child's burial," says a retired detective sergeant, "and we think David Paul represents all the children who are abused, neglected, or abandoned." The local Record-Journal notes that Connecticut has since passed a Safe Haven law that allows a mother to leave her baby at a hospital within 30 days of birth, no questions asked.