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German Woman Admits She's Mother of 9 Dead BabiesAug. 2 -- A woman arrested in Germany on suspicion of killing nine babies shortly after giving birth, admitted she is the mother of the children, the prosecutors' office said. The 39-year-old woman, a resident of Frankfurt-Oder at the Polish border, denied that she murdered the children, whose remains were found two days ago, Ulrich Scherding, the office spokesman, said in a telephone interview from the city today. The bones of the babies who were probably born and killed between 1988 and 2004 were hidden in a fish tank and flower pots on a property in the village of Brieskow-Finkenheerd lying near the border city, Scherding said. ``This is a very bewildering incident for us in Frankfurt- Oder and for all people elsewhere in Germany,'' the city's mayor Martin Patzelt said at a press conference carried live by television channel N-TV. ``We anticipate the results of further investigations and answers to the question of how it was possible for a mother to have acted toward her children in this way.'' The property where the bodies were found is owned by the parents of the woman, whom police only identified as Sabine H., Spiegel magazine reported. The suspect, an unemployed dental assistant, has four other children aged 20, 19, 18 and 18 months, the weekly said on its Web site. Fish Tank A man tidying the garden discovered the first body in the fish tank filled with sand and immediately told police who found eight more, Bernd Halle, the city's vice police chief said at the news conference. Police are continuing with the search of the ground, Halle said. There's no evidence that further bodies are hidden on the estate, he said. The dead children were all born within wedlock and the suspect said that her husband was their father, prosecutor Anette Bargenda told reporters. The couple divorced this year after years of conflict, she said. Sabine H. said that she gave birth alone, according to Bargenda. Investigators will establish whether the husband really was the father of the dead children and how and when they were killed, Bargenda said. ``We're looking at a crime that, from what I remember, is unprecedented in scale in the history of the Federal Republic,'' Joerg Schoenbohm, interior minister in the state of Brandenburg, where the village lies, said in a statement yesterday. |
