The remains of six babies were found in a Winnipeg storage locker and police subsequently charged Andrea Giesbrecht, 40, with six counts of concealing the body of a child.

Employees at a U-Haul facility in the city’s West Alexander neighbourhood made the discovery on Oct. 20 after going in to clean out the unit because rental payments were not being made. Original reports stated there were three and then four bodies found in various states of decomposition, but police later confirmed there were the remains of six children.

According to her lawyer Greg Brodsky, Giesbrecht was first arrested for homicide but those charges were changed to the offence of concealing bodies. The Winnipeg police’s child abuse unit and not their homicide detectives are investigating the case.

A police spokesman, Eric Hofley, said there were three possible explanations for the bodies being discarded in the storage facility: homicide, natural death, and abortion or miscarriage. Police have told journalists the first step is to find out whether the babies were even born. Hofley also said that, whether or not the babies died as the result of a criminal act, putting them in a storage space is itself a crime: “You’re not allowed to store human remains in a storage locker.”

He also said, “whatever the outcome of the investigation it’s very, very disturbing, very tragic for all involved, whether it be the employees of the business or police or emergency personnel and impactful for the employees of the storage facility.”

Autopsies were not performed as of press time and the cause of the deaths was not known. “A lengthy forensic examination and analysis, expected to be months in duration, has begun,” police stated in a news release.

The CBC reported that a DNA analysis will determine if Giesbrecht, who is also known as Andrea Naworynski, is the biological mother of each of the children. Giesbrecht has also been charged with breach of probation in connection with court orders stemming from two fraud convictions in 2012.

Heather White, the executive director of Life’s Vision, a Manitoba pro-life group, called the case “disturbing and tragic.” She told LifeSiteNews, “that this can happen also speaks to the dehumanization of children in our society by abortion,” she said. “We teach that life begins at conception and that these are human beings, regardless of what stage in their lives they are.”