German woman suspected of killing 5 babies held

A woman killed her five infants shortly after giving birth in secret at home and in the woods because each time she got pregnant she worried her husband would leave her if she had any more children, authorities said Thursday.The woman, 28, who has been arrested on five counts of manslaughter, made a comprehensive confession to the killings after turning herself in as a six-year investigation closed in on her, said Ulrike Stahlmann-Liebelt, the head prosecutor in Flensburg, on Germanys border with Denmark.Stahlmann-Liebelt said the woman, whose name was not released in accordance with German privacy laws, has two living children, aged 8 and 10. But then in 2006 she began hiding her pregnancies, staying away from doctors and hospitals and killing the infants after giving birth to two at home and three in the woods, she said.The husband has told police that he knew nothing about the pregnancies, Stahlmann-Liebelt said, and it wasnt entirely clear how the woman managed to keep them secret.Stahlmann-Liebelt said there have been other cases when womans pregnancy can go unnoticed by their partners and others.Police found the first infants body dumped in a paper sorting station in 2006 about 15 kilometers (nine miles) away from the town of Husum where the woman lived. The second was found in a parking area off a regional highway, also about the same distance from Husum but in a different direction, in 2007.After reading news reports that DNA results had confirmed the two children had the same parents, the woman then decided not to dispose the other bodies in public places, police official Dirk Czarnetzki said.She hid the next three infants whose existence authorities were unaware of until the womans confession in boxes in the basement of the building where she lived.The bodies have now been recovered and autopsies have been carried out, but forensic experts have not yet been able to determine the cause or dates of their death.There are about 100 baby-boxes in Germany including one in a town about 50 kilometers (30 miles) from the womans home and more than 100 babies are estimated to be given up in the country that way each year. While the baby-boxes are technically illegal, authorities turn a blind eye on the practice.After finding the first two babies, authorities were able to narrow down the likelihood that the parents came from the area around Husum, a town on the North Sea coast.A judge has ordered the woman held in custody pending a formal indictment, which typically takes several months in Germany. Stahlmann-Liebelt said it was too early to say what penalty she might face if convicted.