French police have detained a woman in her fifties after the bodies of two newborn babies were discovered in a freezer at a home in eastern France.
Sources close to the investigation told AFP on Thursday that the grim discovery was made in the town of Aillevillers-et-Lyaumont, in the country’s east.
According to one source, a man alerted police on Tuesday after finding the body of a newborn in his freezer at his residence. When officers arrived at the property, they uncovered the body of a second infant.
Suspicion quickly turned to the children’s mother, who had reportedly left the home without warning. She was arrested on Wednesday in Boulogne-Billancourt, a western suburb of Paris.
The woman is believed to be the mother of nine children from two relationships.
At the scene in Aillevillers-et-Lyaumont, an AFP photographer observed seals placed on the shutters of a light-coloured, single-storey house with its gate left open, underscoring the gravity of the ongoing investigation.
Mayor Jean-Claude Tramesel expressed shock at the development.
“It’s a small village of 1,500 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 involved, the mayor said they “have lived in the town for about 20 years but do not work here.”
“They are people who keep to themselves,” he added.
The case is the latest suspected instance of infanticide to surface in France in recent years.
In 2022, two newborn babies were discovered in a woman’s freezer in southern France, with prosecutors stating at the time that their deaths were “not natural in origin”.
In 2015, five infant bodies were found in a similar case, which resulted in the mother receiving an eight-year prison sentence.
Another high-profile case involved Veronique Courjault, who was sentenced to eight years in jail in 2009 for killing three of her newborn children.
Authorities have yet to release further details about the latest case as investigations continue.
