A WOMAN IN READING, PENNSYLVANIA, has been charged with five counts of murder after the remains of five children were discovered.
Michele Kalina, 44, had hidden the remains of four newborn babies in a locked closet at her home, where they were discovered by her husband and daughter, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.
The remains of a fifth infant were found at a local landfill site. Police officers who didn’t believe the first set of bones discovered were human had said they could be thrown out.
The BBC reports that tests could not ascertain if that child had been born alive, but that forensic examinations revealed the other four infants had been born alive but died as a result of asphyxiation, poisoning or neglect.
Authorities said Kalina conceived several children, but concealed the pregnancies. She allegedly told her boyfriend and husband that she suffered from ovarian cysts in order to hide the pregnancies.
The AP reports that at least three of the babies were born as a result of an affair, and that Kalina gave birth to a daughter in 2003 but put that child up for adoption. She has a teenage daughter with her husband.
Kalina was initially charged with corpse abuse after being arrested in August. District Attorney John Adams told reports that he is “very confident” that authorities have located all the babies.
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