GUILTY France - Dominique Cottrez charged in deaths of 8 newborns, 1989-2000

Police were alerted after a family moved into their new home and found infant bones while digging a swimming pool in the garden.

The bodies of two babies were found at that site.

Officers traced the previous occupants, who were living less than a mile away in the hamlet.

Sniffer dogs found the bodies of six more newborn babies there.

"Two people are being held in custody. They are the mother and father of the children," said public prosecutor Eric Vaillant.

A local councillor said the unnamed couple are both in their 40s. He said the husband is a builder and his wife a nursing assistant.

Le Figaro newspaper said two of the bodies had been hidden in the first house for more than 20 years.

this is from your link above. Wow, I want some more info, this is crazy.
 
How many forms of stupid do you have to be to keep having babies that you are going to kill?
 
French mother charged with murder of eight newborn babies

<snip> The alleged murders came to light on Saturday, when the owners of a house that had been the property of Dominique Cottrez's parents, now deceased, stumbled upon the bones of two newborns in the garden.

The investigation led quickly to the couple's current home, half a mile away, where police found six other bodies. Even today, teams of investigators and forensic experts from Douai, Paris and Lille are combing the sites for other bodies.

Village mayor Patrick Mercier said a third house in which the couple had briefly lived was also being explored.
 
Father has now been released with no charges against him. The mother is said to be very obese, so it's possible he really didn't have a clue. She didn't want any more children and refused to see a doctor for birth control because she doesn't like doctors!
 
This story made my jaw drop. And they are still looking for more little bodies. And she was a nursing assistant!

She wouldn't have to go to a doctor. A trip to the drug store would have produced a box of condoms and some spermicides - (vaginal contraceptives – spermicidal jelly.) There is something seriously wrong with this woman! :banghead:
 
Marynice, that remark about the woman (if we can call her that) being obese and kept the pregnancies hidden is a shocker to me. Ok maybe once but EIGHT times!

As for the father! It was reported earlier that he had been arrested for hiding the bodies. Now he has been released.

I smell a rat somewhere with this horror.

Poor little babies
 
OMG - this woman is I-N-S-A-N-E. Who keeps having babies over and over then killing them. Not in my world!

So it looks like 8 babies over the period of 20 years -- or 1 every two 1/2 years (give or take).

I just can't comprehend anyone wanting to do that that's not crazy in the head. Those babies could have gone to wonderful homes.

So sad!!
 
Most definitely the woman is insane. I'm always so surprised that people with severe mental health issues choose to work as caregivers. And are often well liked and respected!! Maybe it assuages their conscience to some degree. They obviously compartmentalize.

I really hope that this story is exactly what it seems on the surface--a sick woman giving birth to babies she did not want. I hope the coroners are taking a very close look to make certain that those babies were not tortured or used for any ill purposes.

FWIW, my husband's mother was extremely obese and he could never tell when she was pregnant. She had 10 babies in 11 years. He was the second eldest and a bright boy but there was never a word said about a new baby coming. He'd come home from school and a new little one would be there. So I know that is possible. Also, many morbidly obese women give birth to extremely tiny babies.

Bless the little ones. They became angels so quickly.
 
France has seen a string of cases in recent years of mothers killing their newborn babies and hiding the corpses.

In March, a 38-year-old mother was jailed for 15 years for killing six of her newborn babies and hiding their bodies in bin liners in the cellar of her home in Valognes, near Cherbourg.

Céline Lesage was found guilty of suffocating four babies and strangling two others after giving birth to them in secret between 2000 and 2007.

Another French woman, Veronique Courjault, was convicted last year of murdering three of her newborn children.

Her husband discovered two of the corpses in a freezer while they were living in South Korea.

During the trial, psychiatrists said she suffered from a condition known as "pregnancy denial."


snipped from the article

Apparently there have been an inordinate amount of these cases lately. I had no idea this was becoming such a common and distrubing trend in France.

My question regarding this particular couple is they have two adult daughter and several grandchildren. What saved the two adult living children? Why did they live to reach adulthood when all those little infant siblings did not. According to the article, the bodies were buried over the course of 20 years.
 
I would also wonder why a nursing assistant (obviously not so obese that she was disabled) would not know how to access termination of her pregnancies or long acting birth control. We are looking at this through healthy eyes. However, this woman is not healthy. Even looking at it from her own comfort level, wouldn't one rather use birth control or terminate a pregnancy immediately than have to go through the pain of birth and the trauma and trouble of killing and burying a newborn? If it doesn't make "sense", it's almost always due to a mental illness factor....thinking errors IMO.

Another interesting bit of info is that many obese women have very irregular cycles and have trouble conceiving. It's a frequent occurrence for them to be caught off guard by an unplanned pregnancy as the pregnancy doesn't "show" nearly as early on and pregnancy symptoms can be confused or explained away by other issues--often even linked to obesity. Possibly she was lighter when she had her adult children and grew heavier and more into denial as she aged.
 
I totally agree with you Missizzy. It would be diferent if they had lived a while and then dies mysteriously. In that case I might think Munchousens (sp?) or some similar mental disorder. But the fact that the pregnancies were not known to people around her and therefore the babies were not known to exist let alone be deceased makes me want to further research the "pregnancy denial." referenced by the psychiatrist in the other case referenced in that article.

I feel badly for the adult living children and the grandchildren. Imagine how shocked and confused they must be.
 
Birth control pills and condoms are readily available throughout France but wanted to make sure of this:

http://www.healthsquare.com/fgwh/wh1ch22.htm

"RU 486 (mifepristone), often referred to as the &#8220;abortion pill&#8221; or &#8220; French pill&#8221; because of its widespread use in France, is a relatively safe, effective, nonsurgical early abortion measure."


[ame]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abortion_in_France[/ame]

"Abortion is legal on-request in France in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy (first trimester). Abortion has been decriminalized since the passage of the Veil Law in 1975. Abortion had been criminalized in France with the imposition of the Napoleonic Code. After the first trimester, two physicians must certify that the abortion will be done to prevent grave permanent injury to the physical or mental health of the pregnant woman; a risk to the life of the pregnant woman; or that the child will suffer from a particularly severe illness recognized as incurable...."
 
tlcox--It wouldn't be Munchausen's by Proxy as the whole point there is for the mother to gain a huge amount of attention from doctors concerning their child's health issues. I have an adoptive daughter who suffered with a mother with this disorder. The child almost died. The MO of Munchausen's by Proxy is to take the child to the "edge" as often as possible precipitating frequent hospitalizations and medical intervention. It's almost as if this woman had the reverse of that condition.

But I agree, there's a whole different mindset at play if the babies were allowed to live for any length of time. I believe the courts would deal with the case differently, also, if the investigation shows that the children lived past their first few minutes.

If the woman does indeed have a mental illness including "pregnancy denial", I have a great deal of empathy for her. Twenty years is a LONG time to suffer such a terrible secret. Being a nursing assistant tells me that she has the ability to "connect" with others. Isn't it tragic that she didn't seek out help?
 
This is insane. I have to wonder if the found all the babies she has had.

I also had to wonder what societies views on children on in France.
How expensive is formula. How they view large families. Social normals of parenting. what population factors could play into people thought process. Higher taxes , longer periods of time missed from work. Cost of healthcare...etc.

Not trying to justify her at all just trying to see if there maybe factors outside the black and white (she is nuts cannot be a logical explaination for everything this illogical can it??)

Just wonder what came into play to make this woman think this was acceptable over and over and over again.
 
During my lunch hour I was driving around and they were talking about this case on the radio here in Canada and stated she had been charged with Manslaughter (sorry I don't have a link). Does Manslaughter mean something different in France then it does in North America or am I missing something. If she sufficated all the babies would that not be Murder????
 
She is accused of "homicide volontaire".....murder, of 8 minors under the age of 15.
The mayor of the village said (on the news!) that she rarely left her house so I don't think she was working much.
 

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