The body of a stillborn baby was found Friday in a trash bin outside a west Evanston home, and both the police and the state have launched investigations into the death.

The boy, who weighed 4 pounds, was delivered in a house on the 2200 block of Crain Street and was pronounced dead at 9:42 a.m. in the emergency room of St. Francis Hospital, 355 Ridge Ave., an Evanston Police Department press release said.

This is at least the third time in less than a year that a dead infant has been discovered in Evanston. In October 2004, a dead baby boy was found in the laundry room of St. Francis Hospital. In February, the remains of a fetus were also discovered there.

This baby, who was nicknamed “Baby Avery,” died from intrauterine asphyxia and an abrupted placenta, an official at the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office said. The autopsy report did not list whether the death was natural or accidental, she said.

But on Friday afternoon, the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services started looking into whether this was a “death by abuse,” agency spokeswoman Diane Jackson said. The location of the body prompted the investigation, she said.

The DCFS was not involved in any investigations at the house prior to this incident, Jackson said.

Janet Bradley, a 40-year resident of the same block, said the people who lived at the house where the baby was found moved in about three or four years ago.

The residents include an adult man and woman and a high-school-age girl, Bradley said. There is also a young man who “comes in and out; I don’t know if he lives there or not,” she said.

“I’m still dumfounded by it, and I didn’t know this was happening by my door,” Bradley said.