A French judge charged a mother with the murder of eight of her newborn babies on yesterday and her husband with hiding the bodies.
The pair appeared before an investigating magistrate in the northern town of Douai after police found the skeletal remains of eight babies at two addresses in their village.
The mother, aged in her mid-40s, was charged with the “deliberate homicides of minors under the age of 15,” which carries a life sentence. Her husband was indicted for “failure to report a crime and harboring corpses.”
Police with sniffer dogs searched two houses in Villers-au-Tertre near the northern city of Lille after detaining the pair, both aged in their mid-40s, on Tuesday.
A local councilor said the new owners of a house in the village had called in police on Saturday after finding the bones of infants in the garden of their new home as they were digging.
The house previously belonged to the parents of the charged woman.
Police have found two bodies at that site, the councilor said.
Their inquiries led them to the couple’s home in the village about a kilometer away, where six more babies’ bodies were found, the councilor said.
A judicial source said the case could turn out to be the deadliest infanticide incident ever known in France.
The couple were respected in the community, the councilor said. The husband worked in the building trade, while his wife worked as a nursing assistant.
Paramilitary gendarmes were deployed outside the house in Villers-au-Tertre where the babies’ bodies were found, sealing off the entrance to the building on Wednesday.
Officers at the scene confirmed that two dog handlers and five sniffer dogs had been working at both houses.
“I’m still in shock,” said former mayor of the village Daniel Collignon, describing the village as a very calm and rural place.
Neighbors also reacted with astonishment to the news.
“They are normal people, who even have a role in the community,” one said. “It’s incredible.”
Another added: “These are attractive, helpful, polite and courteous people.”
The couple had two grown-up daughters and were grandparents, another local resident said.
One teenage girl described the mother as a simple, quiet woman “who wouldn’t harm a fly.”
Neighbors said they had lived in the village of 700 people for at least 15 years.
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