Lublin police consider two hypotheses over child deaths

The autopsy's on the five babies found in a barrel of sauerkraut in Cz erniejów, showed that the children had not come from one pregnancy and that they had been born healthy. "There were no external injuries. We don't exclude the fact that the children were strangled", says Lublin Prosecutor Jerzy Krawczuk. The police are considering two hypotheses. According to the first one, there was an illegal midwife practice in the neighborhood, which provided mothers with the possibility of giving birth to unwanted children and subsequently give the children away. The second hypothesis suggests that over several years, Jolanta K., the alleged mother of the dead infants, gave birth to babies, killed them and thereafter hid their bodies. Genetic examinations, which will be known in two weeks, will prove whether K. was the natural mother as well as when the children were born and died. (Gazeta Wyborcza, Aug. 23-24; p. 4) A.Z.