By: Milo Villareal
Woman's Husband Says He Did Not Know She Was Pregnant
Eight candles burned today in front of the "house of horror" in Villers-au-Tertre,
a quiet little village in northern France that was stunned to learn that a villager
has admitted to giving birth to eight children and then smothering them.
Six of the tiny corpses were found in plastic bags stored in her garage, while two
others were buried in the garden of an adjacent yard.
Dominique Cottrez, a 45-year-old nursing assistant, has confessed to killing her
eight newborn children at birth and hiding their bodies, police told a news conference
today. She is in jail after a judge placed her under formal investigation, one step
away from being formally charged for "voluntary murder of minors under the age of 15."
Her husband, Pierre-Marie, a 47-year-old carpenter, was questioned by a judge, but has
not been charged with any crime. He remains free. The couple has two other daughters
in their 20s.
"The mother, Madame Cottrez, has admitted to having voluntarily suffocated (to death)
the newborns at birth between 1989 and 2006 or 2007," Eric Vaillant, the public prosecutor
of Douai, told the news conference.
"Monsieur Cottrez told investigators that he never knew his wife was pregnant as she is
rather stout or that she got rid of the children immediately following their births "
Vaillant said. "His whole world turned upside down" when the husband found out, the
prosecutor said. "Madame Cottrez has confirmed her husband's accounts."
The grisly discoveries began on Saturday when a couple who was gardening found the bodies
of two infants buried in their garden. They immediately alerted the gendarmes, and the
couple was quickly cleared of any wrongdoing.
The investigation then focused on the previous owners of the house, the now-deceased parents
of Dominique Cottrez. Questioned as a witness, Cottrez quickly confessed to killing the two
infants found in the garden. She then pointed investigators to the other six bodies in her garage.
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