A couple has been arrested in the French town of Orange after the bodies of five infants were discovered in cardboard boxes inside their home. The remains were found on Monday, a day after the 32-year-old woman gave birth to a healthy boy at home.
Following the birth, the woman was taken to a hospital. Local media reported that the couple had been arguing about the contents of the boxes. An investigative source told the Daily Mail that the husband discovered the five deceased infants when he looked inside the boxes after his wife began experiencing abdominal pains. The source described the fetuses as decomposing and having been present for a considerable time.
The couple, who have not been named for legal reasons, also have two children aged eight and nine. These children have been placed with relatives, while the newborn boy has been placed with social services, according to the prosecutor's office. Medical examinations are pending to determine the exact nature of the remains and the circumstances surrounding their deaths.
Neighbors described the couple as "charming people" who moved into the building approximately two years ago. One neighbor recounted seeing emergency services arrive for the mother and expressed surprise, noting the woman's thin appearance and questioning if she was pregnant.
The incident in Orange has drawn comparisons to the Dominique Cottrez case. Cottrez, a nursing assistant from northern France, confessed to killing eight of her newborn children and hiding their bodies over nearly two decades. She concealed her pregnancies from her husband and doctor due to being overweight. The discovery of two bodies in plastic bags in 2010 led to her admission that six more infants' bodies were hidden in her garage. In 2015, Cottrez was found guilty of eight counts of infanticide and sentenced to nine years in prison.
In other related cases, a French court in March jailed a 44-year-old woman for 25 years for the deaths of two of her newborns, whose bodies were found in the family freezer. In 2018, another woman was sentenced to eight years in prison for drowning five of her newborn babies and freezing their bodies.