Pennsylvania woman arrested after dead infants found in her closet

A Pennsylvania woman has been charged after police discovered the remains of her four infants in the closet and attic of a home she had been evicted from last month.

Jessica Marie Mauthe, 39, was arrested after her former landlord called police to the home she had lived in outside Ford City, about 40 miles northeast of Pittsburgh.

The landlord, Brent Flanigan, told WTAE-TV that he had law enforcement evict Mauthe for nonpayment on Aug. 14. 

After he began cleaning the home, he came across a trash bag in a closet that had a foul odor and something wrapped in towels that was decomposing, according to the arrest affidavit issued Thursday.

Investigators searched the home and found the bodies of three other infants in the attic in tote bags, wrapped in towels and inside plastic bags, police said.

“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.” 

About a year ago, Mauthe told investigators, she gave birth to a child who made several noises before she held the child “against her, where it remained until it stopped making noises and stopped breathing,” police wrote.

Mauthe told troopers that one newborn had whimpered after she gave birth to it about six years ago, after which she passed out on the floor, according to the affidavit. When she awakened, the baby was beneath her and was not breathing, she told them.

Mauthe was charged with criminal homicide, involuntary manslaughter and multiple counts of abuse of a corpse. She is being held in the Armstrong County Jail without bail. 

A preliminary hearing is scheduled for next week.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.