French mom charged with murders of eight newborn kids

By Catholic Online
7/30/2010
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

Woman was considered 'pillar of community'

Details are emerging about a woman, the wife and proud mother of two grown daughters, considered a pillar of her small French community who is now charged with killing eight of her newborn children. Dominique Cottrez allegedly kept her pregnancies secret, delivered the children, then strangled and buried them on her property in their northern village of Villers-au-Tertre.

Dominique Cottrez allegedly kept eight pregnancies secret, delivered the children, then strangled and buried them on her property in their northern village of Villers-au-Tertre.

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LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - The horrific murders came to light after people disinterred two baby corpses wrapped in bin liners while they were digging a duck pond of Cottrez' former vacation home. The 45-yearold nursing assistant later tearfully admitted to suffocating eight of her newborn babies. She now faces life imprisonment.

Cottrez insists that her 47-year-old husband knew nothing about the murders. Her husband was accused of not reporting the killings and hiding the bodies but has since been released.

Details of the murders are sketchy, but there are reports that the 330-pound Cottrez, after suffering through what she described as the "trauma" of being criticized and ridiculed about her weight by hospital staff during the deliveries of her two daughters, decided not to have any more children.

Cottrez also refused to consult doctors about obtaining contraceptives, either out of timidity or religious conviction. Each subsequent time she fell pregnant, Cottrez was able to hide her condition from co-workers, friends and family, including husband.

Cottrez would secretly give birth, kill the baby and hide its body.

Cottrez is to undergo psychological tests to evaluate the degree of criminal responsibility. "Dominique is a lovely woman," said a neighbor. "She cared for her father until his recent death.

"She's a stout woman, originally from a farming family, so it may be she was able to conceal her pregnancies."

All of the children were killed between the years of 1988 through 2007. Police have not ruled out finding more.

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6 Comments

FatherOfEightF
July 31st, 2010 5:44 am
This is extremely disturbing, regrettable, and even horrifying - no matter what the woman's intentions were; however, let us not forget that this type of murder of children hardly compares with abortion, both in severity and in numbers. Of course, this is one of the types of abortion to which early Christian documents refer and prohibit, yet there were other methods, some not so far from our current ones. Let us pray for this woman and for her family, but let us do all we can to stop the awful murders going on daily in the USA: abortion is murder, just as these were, yet it happens only a little earlier in pregnancy and without a second thought by most people who shutter at this article.
Dismayed
August 1st, 2010 10:47 am
So tragic. May God's mercy be upon this woman and may her children rest peacefully with God. I must respectfully disagree with "FatherofEight." His assertion "this type of murder of children hardly compares with abortion" is only true insofar as abortion has taken millions more lives. However, the act of looking into the eyes of a newly born, living, breathing child--your own child, and strangling the life out if it is infinitely more horrific than the practice of abortion where the mother is the disengaged party allowing doctors in a hospital or clinic to destroy her unborn child. All abortion is is evil, but the evil in this case is infinitely magnified because the woman, herself, with her own bare hands, committed the murders, not once, but eight times.
Anna
August 2nd, 2010 9:37 am
You kill a child in the womb, you kill a child outside the womb. Regardless of how you want to spin it to suit your purposes, you have ended a human life. I do not what even to think about this whole situation, like anyone would say, this is horrific and disturbing. It boggles my mind that she killed eight infants. There are people who struggle for years to have a child, she was given ten children, and murder eight of them. Where is their fairness or justice? Have mercy on her soul? Who knows. I neither condemn nor wish her anythign good or bad. It seems beyond the beyond. I leave it to God to judge..but at times, I am sorry to say, such things shake me deep inside that the depth of human cruelity.
vsedriver
August 2nd, 2010 9:49 am
This woman had a medical background. She knew what she was doing. She planned it and was secretive about it. This was a case of murder. She not only did once she did it 8 times. She deserves life in prison and may God have mercy on her soul.
2b-in1HCA4evr
August 2nd, 2010 9:52 am
She wouldn't seek out contraception for whatever reason, but she apparently found nothing wrong with killing 8 of her own babies. This is distressing on so many levels. For her own sake, and as weird as this may sound, I hope she IS mentally ill and doesn't realize what she has done. How could she live with herself otherwise? Tragic, tragic situation for all involved, God help them!
aChildOFAMom
August 9th, 2010 1:29 pm
it is very sad, horrifying, and agitating for a mother to kill its 8 innocent babies. Many people have desired for a child, but this woman was giftly givened 10 and murdered 8 of them. all abortion is evil, but the evilness of this woman, with her own hands, commited murders not only once, however 8 times! I think it'sright for her to be in prison for a long long time.

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