French prosecutors probe five infants’ deaths at house

Police found bones and a decomposed body believed to be those of five babies at the home of a couple in the southern French city of Orange, prosecutors said.

The discovery was made after the 32-year-old woman, who is also a mother of two children aged eight and nine, gave birth to a baby on Sunday.

According to prosecutors, the woman’s husband, who was stressed after learning too late about her pregnancy, began searching their home and found what appeared to be human remains.

He warned the authorities through the hospital where the woman was treated.

Prosecutors opened a criminal investigation into the suspected murder on Monday after police searched the couple’s home.

Based on initial findings, the forensic pathologist sent to the scene estimated that the bones and decomposing corpses found belonged to five babies.

The man, also 32, told police he knew nothing about his partner’s possible pregnancies.

The prosecutor’s office called on child welfare institutions to make an urgent assessment of the situation of the couple’s eight- and nine-year-old children.

A temporary placement order was also issued for the baby born on Sunday until the case is sent to the juvenile court judge.

The mother, who was brought to the hospital one day after giving birth at home and is still in the hospital, has not yet been interviewed by investigators.

It was not immediately clear whether he had legal representation.

Prosecutors said an autopsy had been ordered on the decomposing body and the bones would be subjected to anthropological analysis in a laboratory.