Two babies found dead in French family's freezer, woman arrested

French police have detained a woman in her fifties after two newborn babies were found dead in a freezer in eastern France. [File, Standard]

French police have detained a woman in her fifties after two newborn babies were found dead in a freezer in eastern France, sources close to the case told AFP on Thursday.

The case is the latest suspected instance of infanticide to emerge in France in recent years.

According to one source, a man alerted police on Tuesday after finding the body of a newborn in his freezer at his home in the eastern town of Aillevillers-et-Lyaumont.

When police arrived, they uncovered the body of a second infant.

Suspicion quickly focused on the mother, who had left the home without warning.

She was arrested in the western Paris suburb of Boulogne-Billancourt on Wednesday.

The woman is believed to be the mother of nine children from two relationships.

In Aillevillers-et-Lyaumont, an AFP photographer saw seals placed on the shutters of a light-coloured, single‑storey home with an open gate.

Mayor Jean-Claude Tramesel expressed his "shock" after learning of the discovery.

"It's a small village of 1,500 inhabitants. When it comes to news stories like this, you always think it happens somewhere else," he told AFP. "We're stunned."

Referring to the couple, Tramesel said that they "have lived in the town for about 20 years but do not work here".

"They are people who keep to themselves," he added.

In 2022, two newborn babies were discovered in a woman's freezer in southern France. Prosecutors said their deaths were "not natural in origin".

In 2015, five bodies were found in a similar case, which saw the mother handed an eight-year jail term.

Another case which went down in French legal annals was that of Veronique Courjault, who received an eight-year sentence in 2009 for killing three of her newborn children.