Two babies found dead in French family’s freezer, mother arrested

A woman in her fifties, suspected of a double infanticide in Haute-Saone after the discovery of two infants' bodies, was arrested in Boulogne-Billancourt (Hauts-de-Seine), AFP learned from sources close to the case. Photo / Sebastian Bozon, AFP

French police have detained a 50-year-old woman after two infants were found dead in a freezer in eastern France, with the suspect admitting to freezing her newborns, prosecutors said on Thursday.

The case is the latest suspected instance of infanticide to emerge in France in recent years.

The grim discovery was made after the woman, who had nine children from three different fathers, had abruptly left the family home in the eastern town of Aillevillers-et-Lyaumont in December.

She left behind four of her children aged 14 to 20, their father, and a fifth child from another relationship.

On Tuesday, a family member discovered the body of a newborn baby in a freezer.

After the family raised the alarm, police discovered a second body in the same freezer, wrapped in a bag.

Suspicion quickly focused on the mother.

‘Sorry for her children’

The woman, who was arrested in the western Paris suburb of Boulogne-Billancourt on Wednesday, admitted to having frozen her two babies after they were born, prosecutor Cedric Logelin told a news conference.

“She had wrapped the newborns immediately after giving birth and then immediately placed them in the freezer, located in the laundry room,” said Logelin.

The woman had worn loose-fitting clothes to hide the pregnancies from her family and friends.

“During questioning, she cried very frequently and said she felt sorry for her children and her family,” the prosecutor added.

The suspect was unable to say when exactly the babies were born.

She said the children were born between 2011 and 2018 when she returned to work, said Magistrate Christine de Curraize.

Her partner, who was also taken into custody, claimed that he was “unaware of these pregnancies and was taken completely by surprise”, the prosecutor said.

An autopsy will be performed on Friday to determine the exact circumstances of the infants’ deaths.

In Aillevillers-et-Lyaumont, seals were visible on the shutters of a light-coloured, one-storey house with an open gate, an AFP photographer noted.

A judicial investigation has been opened for the murder of minors under the age of 15, crimes punishable by life imprisonment, said Logelin.

The public prosecutor’s office has requested that the suspect be placed in pre-trial detention.

‘We’re stunned’

Mayor Jean-Claude Tramesel expressed his “shock” after learning of the discovery.

“It’s a small village of 1500 inhabitants. When it comes to news stories like this, you always think it happens somewhere else,” he told AFP. “We’re stunned.”

Referring to the couple, Tramesel said that they “have lived in the town for about 20 years but do not work here”.

“They are people who keep to themselves,” he added.

In 2022, two newborn babies were discovered in a woman’s freezer in southern France. Prosecutors said their deaths were “not natural in origin”.

In 2015, five bodies were found in a similar case, which saw the mother handed an eight-year jail term.

Another case which went down in French legal annals was that of Veronique Courjault, who received an eight-year sentence in 2009 for killing three of her newborn children.

- Agence France-Presse