Babies hidden amid junk in locker, trial told

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This article was published 19/04/2016 (3489 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

He is identified in court as Baby No. 1. Medical examination showed him to be weighing 2.85 kilograms and measuring 49 centimetres.

His tiny body was found stuffed inside a plastic storage container that also included an unusual list of other items — including three small toy cars, Scooby-Doo underwear, a perfume sample, a Pepto-Bismol bottle filled with coins, a plastic beaded necklace and a McDonald’s Happy Meal coupon. There were also personal papers belonging to Andrea Giesbrecht, including payroll stubs from 2004 and a St. John Ambulance training certificate that expired in 2007.

These intricate details were revealed Tuesday during the second day of Giesbrecht’s high-profile criminal trial. The 42-year-old Winnipeg woman has pleaded not guilty to hiding the remains of six babies hidden inside a U-Haul locker on McPhillips Street.

Court has yet to hear who the parents of the babies are, although that is expected to come out as early as Wednesday when a DNA expert testifies. However, defence lawyer Greg Brodsky revealed in court Tuesday that his client underwent several “therapeutic abortions.” He didn’t say when, or provide any other details.

The only link Brodsky made between the abortions and the infant remains that are the focus of the case was to then immediately suggest to a Winnipeg police officer that “these products of conception were delivered without medical assistance.”

“There could have been assistance rendered. Whether it was professional or otherwise, I don’t know,” replied Const. Danielle Aessie, who worked in the forensic identification unit and was responsible for seizing all related exhibits.

Lawyers also filed a document Tuesday showing Giesbrecht’s husband underwent a vasectomy in 2011. The relevance of that info has not been made clear at this time. As well, court heard that police seized a used sanitary napkin from Giesbrecht’s bathroom, and obtained a voluntary blood sample from her husband for DNA comparison.

Giesbrecht was previously told by police she could be charged with murder, but that didn’t happen. She was arrested in October 2014 after U-Haul employees made the grisly discovery while cleaning out her storage area; she was several months overdue on her locker rental payments, ignoring repeated warnings to square up.

On Tuesday, Aessie led the court through a detailed account of her observations both at the scene, in the police lab and during an incredibly difficult series of autopsies that lasted many hours over multiple days. Provincial court Judge Murray Thompson also viewed more than 100 photos, many of them extremely graphic, showing the infants in the condition in which they were found.

Besides Baby No. 1, the only other victim who could be readily identified by gender was Baby No. 4 — a girl, court was told. Babies 2, 3, 5 and 6 were in such advanced stages of decomposition that no immediate observations could be made. Weights were also not provided for any of those infants, all of whom had umbilical cords attached.

Aessie described how she first responded to the call of “suspicious items” being found in the locker and then used a scalpel to cut open the first plastic bag she removed from a container.

“I was trying to ascertain what, in fact, we were looking at,” she told court. “Once I opened the bag a small hand was apparent.”

Aessie said she initially believed there were four infants, not six, and that it wasn’t until a more detailed examination occurred at the police lab that the number was discovered.

A large blue bin, in which babies 2 and 3 were found also included a women’s blouse, a long-sleeve infant shirt, an Old Navy sweater, men’s pyjama pants, men’s boxer shorts, black socks, Lysol wipes and candy wrappers. Baby No. 4 was located in a separate laundry detergent pail, wrapped inside a President’s Choice shopping bag. A cartoon towel and a cheque receipt were also inside the container.

On Monday, two U-Haul employees testified that Giesbrecht had fallen behind on her monthly payment plan for locker 1103, which she rented in March 2014 following years of previous storage rentals with another company.

Giesbrecht was given more than a dozen warnings to pay off her overdue account or risk having her locker forfeited and all items inside sent to auction. The employees told court that Giesbrecht would often promise to come in after receiving a warning, but wouldn’t show up. She claimed some personal items from her deceased father were inside the locker and pleaded with officials not to get rid of them.

Brodsky previously told the Free Press the remains are likely more than a decade old, based on information he’d received. He is challenging whether the state of the infants meets the legal requirement to prove the unique charges against his client.

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