WARNING: This is sick, please do not read if you get offended easily
http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/06/03/austria.bodies.ap/index.html
VIENNA, Austria (AP) -- In a gruesome discovery that stunned usually tranquil Austria, police said Friday they found the bodies of four newborns -- two of them stuffed into a freezer -- at an apartment complex in the southern city of Graz.
Authorities charged the infants' 32-year-old mother with murder, saying she confessed to killing them out of despair over her inability to pay bills and fear that having a child might drive away her longtime male partner. The companion also was placed under investigation.
The grisly killings and disposals, which authorities said may have begun three years ago, shocked the alpine nation, where multiple homicides are rare, and led to calls for more assistance for women who have crisis pregnancies.
Police said two of the bodies were found in the freezer of the apartment building in Graz, about 200 kilometers (120 miles) south of Vienna and a few kilometers (miles) from the birthplace of California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Authorities arrested the suspect and her 38-year-old partner on Thursday, police said.
Austrian state broadcaster ORF said two bodies were wrapped in plastic bags and stuffed in the freezer, and a third -- a newborn girl -- was placed in a paint bucket that was filled with cement to conceal the remains.
Specially trained police sniffer dogs led investigators to the body in the bucket, ORF reported. Police were searching the building and an adjacent garden shed for clues to the killings Friday when they came across the fourth body, wrapped in a plastic bag beneath a pile of debris in the shed, officials said.
Graz's Kleine Zeitung newspaper reported that the first of the bodies was discovered on Monday by a resident of the multifamily apartment block when the man -- who went down to the basement to get ice cream for his children -- opened a chest freezer shared by the building's occupants.
Stunned, the tenant called police, who later located a second body in the freezer, buried beneath frozen meat and vegetables.
Although police initially considered the possibility that the infants may have been stillborn, evidence at the scene quickly pointed to the newborns' slayings before their bodies were stuffed in the freezer, they said in a statement.
The suspect, a bookkeeper whose name was not released in line with Austrian privacy laws, lived in the building with her partner for the past eight years, authorities said. Neighbors described the woman as "a real mensch" who worked hard to keep a tidy house and a beautiful yard.
Police Lt. Col. Werner Jud said Friday the suspect was not entirely coherent during questioning, but told investigators she gave birth to all the babies in her bathtub.
"Various reasons can lead women into such violent situations that they can't even think straight," said Dr. Roswith Roth of the University of Graz's Institute of Psychology.
"When a mother kills a child right after its birth, it's clear that she does so because she sees no other way out," Roth told the Austria Press Agency. "There is still an enormous amount of ignorance in how to prevent such things."
Police said they believed the bodies may have been placed in the freezer as long as three years ago. They said the woman mentioned in her confession that she was in despair over her ability to survive and had been worried she would lose her companion if she had a child.
Her partner allegedly told police he was unaware of her pregnancies and insisted he played no role in either the slayings or the hiding of the bodies.
Although the province of Styria where Graz is regional capital has had a program in place since 2001 allowing women who don't want to keep their babies to give birth anonymously, women's advocates called for greater attention to their plight.
"The climate in which a woman must deal with an unplanned pregnancy is not very supportive in Austria," said Sylvia Groth, who heads a women's health center in Graz.
Autopsies were held, but results had not been released as of Friday afternoon, officials said. They said the forensic examination was held up by the need to first slowly thaw the frozen remains of the infants found in the freezer.
Jud said DNA tests would be carried out on the woman's companion to determine if he was the babies' father.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/06/03/austria.bodies.ap/index.html
VIENNA, Austria (AP) -- In a gruesome discovery that stunned usually tranquil Austria, police said Friday they found the bodies of four newborns -- two of them stuffed into a freezer -- at an apartment complex in the southern city of Graz.
Authorities charged the infants' 32-year-old mother with murder, saying she confessed to killing them out of despair over her inability to pay bills and fear that having a child might drive away her longtime male partner. The companion also was placed under investigation.
The grisly killings and disposals, which authorities said may have begun three years ago, shocked the alpine nation, where multiple homicides are rare, and led to calls for more assistance for women who have crisis pregnancies.
Police said two of the bodies were found in the freezer of the apartment building in Graz, about 200 kilometers (120 miles) south of Vienna and a few kilometers (miles) from the birthplace of California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Authorities arrested the suspect and her 38-year-old partner on Thursday, police said.
Austrian state broadcaster ORF said two bodies were wrapped in plastic bags and stuffed in the freezer, and a third -- a newborn girl -- was placed in a paint bucket that was filled with cement to conceal the remains.
Specially trained police sniffer dogs led investigators to the body in the bucket, ORF reported. Police were searching the building and an adjacent garden shed for clues to the killings Friday when they came across the fourth body, wrapped in a plastic bag beneath a pile of debris in the shed, officials said.
Graz's Kleine Zeitung newspaper reported that the first of the bodies was discovered on Monday by a resident of the multifamily apartment block when the man -- who went down to the basement to get ice cream for his children -- opened a chest freezer shared by the building's occupants.
Stunned, the tenant called police, who later located a second body in the freezer, buried beneath frozen meat and vegetables.
Although police initially considered the possibility that the infants may have been stillborn, evidence at the scene quickly pointed to the newborns' slayings before their bodies were stuffed in the freezer, they said in a statement.
The suspect, a bookkeeper whose name was not released in line with Austrian privacy laws, lived in the building with her partner for the past eight years, authorities said. Neighbors described the woman as "a real mensch" who worked hard to keep a tidy house and a beautiful yard.
Police Lt. Col. Werner Jud said Friday the suspect was not entirely coherent during questioning, but told investigators she gave birth to all the babies in her bathtub.
"Various reasons can lead women into such violent situations that they can't even think straight," said Dr. Roswith Roth of the University of Graz's Institute of Psychology.
"When a mother kills a child right after its birth, it's clear that she does so because she sees no other way out," Roth told the Austria Press Agency. "There is still an enormous amount of ignorance in how to prevent such things."
Police said they believed the bodies may have been placed in the freezer as long as three years ago. They said the woman mentioned in her confession that she was in despair over her ability to survive and had been worried she would lose her companion if she had a child.
Her partner allegedly told police he was unaware of her pregnancies and insisted he played no role in either the slayings or the hiding of the bodies.
Although the province of Styria where Graz is regional capital has had a program in place since 2001 allowing women who don't want to keep their babies to give birth anonymously, women's advocates called for greater attention to their plight.
"The climate in which a woman must deal with an unplanned pregnancy is not very supportive in Austria," said Sylvia Groth, who heads a women's health center in Graz.
Autopsies were held, but results had not been released as of Friday afternoon, officials said. They said the forensic examination was held up by the need to first slowly thaw the frozen remains of the infants found in the freezer.
Jud said DNA tests would be carried out on the woman's companion to determine if he was the babies' father.
