A woman in her 50s has been arrested in France on suspicion of infanticide after the discovery of the remains of two newborn babies in a freezer in Haute-Saône, northwestern France. The arrest took place on Wednesday in Boulogne-Billancourt, a suburb of Paris, according to reports from AFP.
The grim discovery was initially made by a man who found the body of one infant although at his home in Aillevillers-et-Lyaumont. Police were subsequently called to the scene and uncovered the remains of a second child. Investigators determined the woman, a mother of nine with no prior criminal record, had given birth at home and concealed the pregnancies from those around her.
“She admitted to being the mother of the infants found in the freezer,” Besançon prosecutor Cédric Logelin stated during a press conference. “She said that she had given birth at home, wrapped up the newborns immediately afterward, and then placed them in the freezer. She knew she was the only user of the freezer.”
Authorities believe the infants were placed in the freezer between 2011 and 2018. The bodies were found in bags during “technical and scientific police operations,” Logelin added. The prosecutor was unable to confirm the exact dates of birth.
The suspect was arrested a few hours after the discovery, approximately 186 miles away in the Paris region, where one of her sons resides. Local officials were informed of the situation, with the mayor of Aillevillers-et-Lyaumont, Jean-Claude Tramesel, describing the town as “stunned” by the news.
“This is a little village of 1,500 inhabitants,” Tramesel told AFP. “We always think that such incidents happen to other people… We are stunned.” He noted that the woman and her partner had lived in the town for around two decades without attracting undue attention. “They are people who have lived in the town for about twenty years but do not work there. They are people who do not draw attention to themselves,” he said.
The investigation has been taken over by the Lure Criminal Investigation Brigade and the Besançon Criminal Investigation Section. Further inquiries are ongoing to determine the full circumstances surrounding the deaths of the two infants.