Summary
Highlights
On July 24, 2010, in Villerre-au-Tertre, France, a couple working in their new garden discovered two plastic bags containing human bones, later identified as infant remains. This discovery unveiled a 20-year-old secret that would become known as the Dominique Cottrez case.
The police quickly secured the area and confirmed the remains were those of newborns. The couple who found them had just moved in, with the previous occupants being the Empereur family, including Dominique Cottrez, who still lived nearby. Invited for questioning, Dominique calmly admitted the babies were hers and began revealing a horrifying pattern: self-delivery followed by suffocation, wrapping the bodies, and hiding them.
Initially, Dominique spoke of two babies, but inconsistencies in her story led investigators to believe there were more. A search of her former home's garage revealed six more infant bodies, bringing the total to eight. These births and deaths occurred secretly between 1989 and 2000, with no one, not even her husband or daughters, noticing anything. DNA tests confirmed the infants were full-term and had been suffocated.
Dominique, a discreet 46-year-old nurse, lived a seemingly ordinary life but was deeply isolated. She spoke of a strict upbringing, body image issues from adolescence, and a severe fear of doctors stemming from a traumatic first delivery. This fear led her to hide subsequent pregnancies, even delivering one baby covertly in a hospital bathroom. She confessed to having been sexually abused by her father starting at age 8, fearing some of the babies might be his, though she later retracted this specific accusation during her trial.
A major legal question arose regarding the statute of limitations for the infanticides, as some occurred over 10 years prior. The prosecution argued that since the crimes were concealed, the limitation period should start from the discovery of the bodies in 2010. This complex issue reached France's highest court, the Cour de Cassation, which ruled in favor of the prosecution, setting a precedent for 'concealed offenses' in voluntary homicide cases. This decision allowed her to be tried for all eight infanticides.
Dominique Cottrez's trial began on June 25, 2015, in Douai for the assassination of eight minors, carrying a potential life sentence. During the trial, she retracted her incest accusation but confirmed that six of the eight babies were fathered by her husband, Pierre-Marie. She explained that her husband's refusal to use contraception led to frequent pregnancies, and her fear of childbirth, traumatizing from her first experience, drove her to suffocate the newborns. Psychiatrists described her as suffering from profound psychological distress, with no sadistic intent. Pierre-Marie claimed he noticed nothing unusual, attributing any strange smells to his own foot odor. On July 2, 2015, Dominique Cottrez was sentenced to nine years in prison. She served three years and was released on parole in June 2018 with mandatory psychological monitoring.
The case profoundly shocked France due to its scale and duration – eight babies, 20 years of silence. Dominique Cottrez never sought help or confided in anyone. The case highlighted how a seemingly ordinary life could mask such horrific acts, leaving deep questions about how such extensive concealment could go unnoticed for so long.