Woman confirms nine dead babies were hers

A woman suspected of killing nine newborn babies found buried in eastern Germany has confirmed they were her children but cannot recall how they were killed.

The 39-year-old woman, identified only as Sabine H, was arrested on Sunday on suspicion of manslaughter after police found the nine bodies in flower pots and a fish tank in a village near the Polish border.

“She says she can’t remember how they were killed because she drank heavily when the contractions began,” prosecutor Annette Bargenda said at a news conference.

In at least seven cases, the woman “knows she put a covering over each child. She said she woke or sobered up only after the children were already buried,” Bargenda said.

A police spokesman had said earlier today that the woman had admitted killing some of the children, but the spokesman later said that was incorrect.

Prosecutors suspect the woman killed all nine infants between 1988 and 2004 and hid their bodies in the flower pots and fish tank, some of which she had kept on the balcony of her home.