A Pennsylvania woman has been charged after police discovered the remains of her four infants in the closet and attic of the home from which she was evicted last month.
Jessica Marie Mauthe, 39, was arrested when her former landlord sent police to the residence she had lived in near Ford City, roughly 40 miles northeast of Pittsburgh.
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Brent Flanigan, the landlord, told WTAE-TV that he had law enforcement remove Mauthe for nonpayment on August 14.
After starting to clean the house, he discovered a garbage bag in a closet with a terrible odor and something wrapped in towels that was decomposing, according to the arrest affidavit released Thursday.
Investigators examined the house and discovered the bodies of three other infants in the attic, wrapped in towels and placed inside plastic bags, according to authorities.
“Shocked. No one believed it. It’s just evil,” neighbor Carmen Felix told WTAE-TV. “How can you plop babies in the toilet? The girl across from here is a nurse, and she’s sick. She almost didn’t go to work today because she can’t get this off her mind.”
Mauthe told detectives around a year ago that she gave birth to a child who made several noises before holding it “against her, where it remained until it stopped making noises and stopped breathing,” according to police.
According to the affidavit, Mauthe told troopers that after she gave birth to one newborn roughly six years ago, the baby whimpered, and then she passed out on the floor. When she awoke, the baby was beneath her and not breathing, she informed them.
Mauthe faced charges of criminal homicide, involuntary manslaughter, and many counts of corpse abuse. She is being held at the Armstrong County Jail without bond.
The preliminary hearing is slated for next week.
