A man in France's Provence region found the remains of five babies stuffed into cardboard boxes at his home on Monday, July 29. The couple cannot be named for legal reasons.
Discovery After Argument
The couple had been arguing over the contents of the boxes just a day after the wife gave birth, following a pregnancy she denied. This was the third time she had denied being pregnant, according to media reports.
The woman began suffering abdominal pains and went to hospital, leaving her husband at home. A source told the Daily Mail the man "looked inside the cardboard boxes they had been arguing over – that's when he found the five dead babies." The source said they were all "decomposing, and had been around for quite a while."
Police Investigation
The husband notified police, who are now investigating. The couple have three living children, aged eight, twelve, and the newborn. Medical examinations will determine the exact nature of the remains and the circumstances of their deaths. First forensic examinations, including autopsies, were carried out on Wednesday, July 29.
No arrests have been made in connection with the case. The case has drawn parallels to several other newborn murder cases in France. In March, a French court jailed a 44-year-old woman for 25 years over the deaths of two of her newborns found in the family freezer. In 2018, a woman received eight years for drowning five of her newborns and freezing their bodies. In 2015, a nursing assistant confessed to killing eight of her newborns at birth between 1989 and 2006.
