Bodies of four strangled babies found in France woodland

By JOHN LICHFIELD in Paris

The discovery of the bodies of four newly-born babies - apparently strangled - in woodland in eastern France has baffled investigators and generated a series of macabre rumours and allegations.

The tiny corpses were found inside plastic supermarket bags, wrapped in bin-liners. Two of them still had nooses around their necks. Post-mortems suggest that the babies were born alive and murdered soon after their birth, probably in the late spring or early summer.

The murder of individual babies is an uncommon but occasional event in France, as in most other countries. The discovery of four infant corpses at the same time is unprecedented.

Gendarmerie investigators say that they have little evidence to go on and can pursue "no particular" line of inquiry until DNA tests and other researches are completed.

Local people in the village of Galfingue, near Mulhouse, in Alsace have pointed the finger of blame at satanists, gypsies and the eastern European prostitution rings which have colonised many French cities in the last five years.

Claude Minssen, president of a regional child welfare group, Enfance Majuscule Alsace, said: "We are utterly perplexed. All possibilities must be examined, even those which appear on the face of it to be bizarre."

The babies were found nine days ago by a local wood-cutter, Philippe Gava, 46, when he was clearing undergrowth in a section of forest which he owns, eight miles south of Mulhouse.

At first, it was thought that the plastic bags contained only one infant corpse, as well as blood-stained underwear and towels. It appeared to be a single infanticide or a still-birth.

This week the public prosecutor's office in Mulhouse announced that the decomposing remains of four babies has been identified, wrapped in several layers of shopping bags inside three bin-liners. The babies had been born alive and apparently strangled soon after their birth.

Until further tests are completed, it is unclear whether the babies came from one mother, or two or more. The possibility that they were quadruplets has not been ruled out but is regarded as unlikely. A murder investigation has been launched.

M. Gava said that he found the bags hidden in a tangle of brambles which had grown up since he last visited that section of the forest in late April.

Villagers in Galfingue said that they were convinced that the babies could not be local.

"The motorway passes only a few kilometres away. It could be someone from Mulhouse or Germany or anywhere," said Suzanne, a waitress in the village's only bar.

"The gendarmes should start asking questions among the prostitutes in Mulhouse," she said.

"There are many young women from the east (of Europe) who are working there now. We know that they are beaten and raped by their pimps. It could be a pimp who put the babies there."

Other villagers spoke to the press of rumours of satanic rituals in the area and the discovery several weeks ago of a number of skulls close to a first world war bunker in a neighbouring village. A gendarmerie spokesman said that there was no reason to connect this discovery with the dead babies.

Other local people pointed an accusing finger at "gens de voyage" or gypsies, who are routinely accused of responsibility for anything that goes amiss in rural France.

An 11-strong team of gendarmes is investigating the murders. They are interviewing all doctors in southern Alsace to try to identify expectant mothers whose babies are unaccounted for. They have also called for anyone who visited that section of the forest in the last year to try to recall if they saw anything suspicious.

- INDEPENDENT