Three dead babies found in coolers in Germany

BERLIN—German prosecutors said Wednesday they have opened a probe following the grisly discovery of three dead babies in an apartment block and garage rented out to a 40-year-old woman.

Prosecutors and police in the western town of Giessen said two of the small corpses were found Tuesday in camping coolers in the basement of the apartment block during the clearing out of a flat that had been rented to the woman.

A third was found on Wednesday in another cooler in a garage used by her.

“The investigating authorities hope to clarify the exact circumstances of death with an autopsy,” police and prosecutors said in a joint statement.

“Only then will it be possible to provide information on the sex, age, time of death and possibly the cause of death.”

A spokeswoman for the local prosecutor’s office told AFP that as of late Wednesday no arrest warrant had been issued for the woman.

Germany has witnessed several similar cases in recent years, most notably a woman on the Polish border who was jailed for 15 years in 2006 for killing eight of her newborn babies and hiding the remains in flower pots and a fish tank.