French police seals affixed to the door of an apartment, after the bodies of five deceased infants were discovered. (Source: AFP)
French prosecutors have opened a murder investigation after the skeletal remains of four infants and the decomposed body of a newborn were discovered at a couple’s apartment in the historic centre of Orange, in southeastern France.The grisly discovery was made by the woman’s partner, who alerted Orange Hospital, which then informed the Carpentras prosecutor’s office, according to a statement from prosecutors confirming Le Parisien’s report.The man, also 32, had been “troubled by the discovery once again very late of his partner’s pregnancy,” prosecutors said. The woman had given birth to a healthy baby at home on Sunday before being transported to hospital. The prosecutor’s office described it as a “third denial of pregnancy.”The partner, who was not at home when she went to the hospital complaining of stomach pains, began searching through boxes in the apartment after a disagreement with his wife over their contents. He found what appeared to be human remains and brought the decomposed body of an infant to the hospital.Prosecutors then engaged the national police’s organised and specialised crime division, which searched the couple’s home on Monday evening. During the search, investigators discovered the skeletal remains of four other infants stored in boxes, prosecutors said.A forensic pathologist determined “that the bones and decomposing body discovered belonged to five infants,” the prosecutor’s office said. An autopsy will be performed on the body, and the bones will undergo laboratory analysis.The mother, also 32, remains hospitalised and has not yet been placed in custody or questioned by investigators, according to prosecutors. The man told investigators he was unaware of any possible pregnancies involving his partner. He was questioned voluntarily and released.The couple is already parents to two children aged eight and nine. The man works while the woman is a homemaker. A neighbour described them to AFP as “charming people” in their thirties, “normal people” who had lived in the building for about two years.A neighbour living in the adjacent alley, Florent Jean, told AFP the couple “seemed like charming people” who had enrolled their two children in the local primary school. The homemaker mother “would pick up the kids at noon from school for lunch,” and the father “would go to work in the morning and return in the evening.”On Tuesday morning, bicycles and scooters were parked outside the second-floor apartment door, where police seals indicated “murder on a minor.” Another neighbour, Philippe Constant, told AFP he was awakened around 11 pm Monday by police who rang his doorbell, looking for the couple’s apartment and holding a photo of the mother. He also saw forensic police in white suits with masks and cameras arriving at the scene.Prosecutors have referred the couple’s two children to child welfare services for an urgent assessment of their situation. A temporary protection order was also issued for the newborn boy, pending referral to a juvenile court judge.
