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A man in France discovered remains believed to belong to five newborns hidden inside cardboard boxes in his home after his partner gave birth at home and was taken to a hospital, according to prosecutors.
He became distressed after he found out about her pregnancy at a very late stage, despite her repeated denials, and began searching their home, prosecutors said. The couple already had two children, ages eight and nine.
The woman, 32, who was not identified, was allegedly arguing with her husband over what was in the boxes at their home in the town of Orange on Monday after she gave birth at home to a baby boy the day before.
She started complaining about abdominal pain during the argument on Monday. She was taken to a hospital and her husband stayed behind and discovered the dead babies hidden in the boxes.
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The man, also 32, then notified authorities through the hospital where the woman was being treated for pain.
“The husband stayed behind when she was taken to the hospital, and looked inside the cardboard boxes they had been arguing over – that’s when he found the five dead babies,” an investigating source said, according to the US Sun. “All the [fetuses] were decomposing, and had been around for quite a while.”
Police searched the couple’s home, and prosecutors opened a criminal investigation into suspected murder on Monday.
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A forensic pathologist estimated, based on initial findings, that the bones and decomposing remains belonged to five newborns.
Authorities said the remains included bones believed to belong to four newborns and the decomposing body of a fifth. Autopsies and further laboratory testing were ordered.
The man told police he was unaware of his wife’s possible pregnancies.
The public prosecutor’s office urged child welfare services to assess the health of the couple’s eight and nine-year old children. It also issued a provisional placement order for the newborn baby, pending referral of the case to a children’s court judge.
The mother, who was still in the hospital on Tuesday, has not yet spoken to investigators.
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A post-mortem examination has been ordered on the decomposing remains, and the bones will undergo anthropological analysis in a laboratory, according to prosecutors.
The couple had no history of problems and were described by a neighbor as “charming people,” according to French outlet AFP.
The neighbor, Florent Jean, told the outlet that the wife was a stay-at-home mother and the husband worked. Jean said the two were “normal people, really.”
Reuters contributed to this report.