Trial Begins for Woman Who Killed 8 of Her Children

The trial of a Frenchwoman who killed eight of her children has begun five years after the remains of her victims were discovered.

The New York Times reports that the first body was discovered in a plastic trashbag by Leonard Meriaux as he dug in the garden of his recently purchased house in the city of Douai. After notifying the police, an investigation began and the police discovered seven other bodies as they continued to investigate throughout the property.  

Meriaux had recently purchased the house from the family of Dominque Cottrez, who is believed to have killed the eight infants. She said she killed the infants because she was married at the same time as she carried on a years-long incestuous relationship with her father.

She said she did not get abortions or birth control because she had a fear of doctors.

She says she was first raped by her father at the age of eight, but as she grew older, she began to like it and carried on with the relationship after marrying. She said that she loved her father, who died in 2007, even more than her husband.

She claims she was afraid that the children were the products of this incestuous relationship, and that is why she killed them.

The 51-year-old woman, who worked as a nurse's aide, faces life in prison for her crimes. She was able to kill the children without arousing suspicion because of her obesity, which made it impossible for friends, family, and even doctors to see the physical changes that normally accompany pregnancy.

Despite killing eight infants she birthed, Cottrez has two daughters in their mid-twenties. She said she enjoyed being pregnant with her first daughter, but not the other, or any of the other infants she killed.