When Charles Peavey of Concord learned in April that the police wanted his family's unusual heirloom - a mummified baby - he gave it up with a mix of trepidation and hope. The mummy and the stories surrounding it had been in Peavey's family for generations. But DNA testing could finally confirm whether that baby was truly a Peavey.

It now seems unlikely the authorities will spend the few thousand dollars to do the DNA testing, said Peavey, 41. And worse, he said, he's been told he may not even get the mummy back. Instead, Dr. Marcella Sorg, the Maine forensic scientist examining the mummy, investigated only the cause of death and whether the corpse is diseased, he said.

Sorg has finished her autopsy, the Concord police said, but has not submitted a report. Sorg could not be reached for comment, and neither the police nor Peavey has heard her conclusions.

"It's devastating," said Peavey. "I'm not going to learn a thing, and I probably won't get him back."

The DNA testing necessary to determine whether the baby is a Peavey relation can run $2,000 or more, and Peavey said he does not have the money to cover it.

Neither Peavey nor his family knows for sure how a great-great-uncle came to have the mummy, but one story says the corpse is of the great-great-uncle's stillborn son. The family estimates the mummy is 80 to 90 years old. It was found among the belongings of Peavey's great-great-uncle, who was born in Ashland in 1850.

The state attorney general's office and the Concord police took the mummy in late April, as well as a DNA sample from Peavey. If he did get the mummy back and confirmation that it was a relation, Peavey had hoped to hold a funeral and bury the mummy, which is know to Peavey's family as "Baby John."

ANNMARIE TIMMINS