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Woman, 64, held after bodies of three babies discovered

Matthew Beard
Wednesday 04 May 2005 00:00 BST

Police were questioning a woman aged 64 last night after the discovery of three dead babies. She was arrested yesterday as part of an inquiry launched six weeks ago after a baby's body was found in a plastic bag in an attic on a South Wales housing estate.

Police were questioning a woman aged 64 last night after the discovery of three dead babies. She was arrested yesterday as part of an inquiry launched six weeks ago after a baby's body was found in a plastic bag in an attic on a South Wales housing estate.

Officers searched the woman's home - a different address on the estate where the first baby was discovered - and found two other corpses.

Police have sealed off the Gurnos estate in Merthyr Tydfil and said they would be searching other properties in the area. Officers also confirmed that all three babies had been "bagged up" in a similar way.

An officer on the inquiry said: "This came as quite a shock and we are not sure what we are dealing with at the moment."

Forensic tests were being made on the latest babies to be found last night. The first baby was discovered on 20 March by a family moving into a modern terraced home on the estate. The father of the family was putting empty packing cases into the attic when he found the remains in a plastic bag.

Police have spent the last six weeks tracing all the occupants of the house as well as making house-to-house inquiries. The breakthrough came yesterday when they arrested a woman pensioner living on the estate.

A statement said: ""The local woman is helping police with their inquiries at Merthyr Tydfil police station. Following the arrest at her home in the Gurnos and a subsequent search of the property officers discovered what they believed to be the remains of two further infants, which were enclosed in bags in the attic."

The post-mortem examination on the first set of remains failed to establish a cause of death but pathologists said the baby was full-term. It is not known whether the child was male or female. At the time, police said the body had been dead for years rather than months.

The family who made the discovery above their bedrooms have been offered counselling.

A neighbour on the Gurnos estate said: "This place has a bad reputation but everyone is shocked by the latest discovery. It was bad enough when one baby was found dead, but three? It is too horrific to think about."

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