A harrowing discovery has rocked the quiet town of Aillevillers-et-Lyaumont in eastern France, where police have detained a woman in her fifties after the bodies of two newborn babies were found inside a freezer at her family home.
The shocking revelation began on Tuesday when a man, believed to be the woman’s partner, alerted authorities after finding the body of a newborn in the freezer. Upon arriving at the scene, police uncovered the body of a second infant.
Following the discovery, suspicion quickly fell on the mother, who had reportedly left the home without warning.
She was tracked down and arrested on Wednesday in Boulogne-Billancourt, a suburb west of Paris.
Sources close to the investigation revealed that the woman is believed to be the mother of nine children from two previous relationships.
The detained suspect is currently in custody as investigators work to unravel the circumstances surrounding the deaths.
The incident has left the small community of 1,500 inhabitants reeling. Mayor Jean-Claude Tramesel expressed his disbelief to AFP, stating that while news stories like this happen, residents are stunned to see it occur in their own village.
Tramesel noted that the couple had lived in the town for about 20 years but kept to themselves and did not work locally.
An AFP photographer at the scene reported seeing police seals placed on the shutters of the family’s single-storey home, marking it as a crime scene.
This case adds to a disturbing list of infanticide discoveries in France in recent years. In 2022, two newborn babies were found in a woman’s freezer in southern France, with prosecutors ruling their deaths as unnatural.
Similarly, in 2015, a case involving five bodies resulted in an eight-year prison sentence for the mother. Perhaps most notoriously, Veronique Courjault was sentenced to eight years in 2009 for killing three of her newborns, a case that gripped the nation.
As the investigation continues, authorities are working to determine the cause of death and the timeline of events that led to this tragedy.
