French prosecutors said Thursday they charged a woman with murder after she admitted giving birth to and smothering eight babies over a 17-year period in northern France.

The woman, Dominique Cottrez, said she hid the pregnancies and deaths from her husband, who said he had no idea what she had done, prosecutor Eric Vaillant told reporters. Cottrez is overweight and was able to conceal the pregnancies, he said.

Cottrez told investigators the reason she killed the babies was that she did not want to have any more children and did not want to see doctors for contraceptives, Vaillant said.

Despite earlier reports that the husband had been charged, Vaillant said he was free to go but may still be investigated. Vaillant said he personally still had "doubts" about the father's story.

"The sky has fallen in on his head," Vaillant said of the father, Pierre-Marie Cottrez. "He indicated he had no idea she was pregnant."

Vaillant said there are no other babies' bodies left to be found.

The case came to light when a couple gardening in their backyard in the northern town of Villers-au-Tertre found two babies' bodies in sealed plastic bags and called police.

Police spoke to Cottrez and her husband, who had previously lived in the home, and Cottrez admitted immediately that she was the mother of the two babies, Vaillant said. She then told police about six others concealed in their garage, Vaillant said.

Those six bodies were also in sealed plastic bags but were covered by various objects, he said.

Cottrez, a nurse, had psychological problems from her first pregnancy, said Pierre-Jean Gribouva, the lawyer for her husband.


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Woman declared dead seen in Las Vegas?

http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/07/29/california.missing.woman/index.html

There have been "credible sightings" recently of a California woman who vanished nearly a year ago after being released from a sheriff's station, authorities said Wednesday.

The Las Vegas, Nevada, Police Department will hold a news conference Thursday to update the search for Mitrice Richardson, police said.

"There's been some credible sightings," Steve Whitmore, spokesman for the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Office, told CNN. "It's not definite. We are going to ask the public's help in locating her."

"We want to let her know if she is listening that she is not in trouble and will not be subject to arrest. We just want her to know that it is ok to contact authorities and family, and to let us know that she is alive."

KABC: Richardson urged to come forward

Richardson, who was 24 when she disappeared but would be 25 now, is a former beauty pageant contestant who was last seen leaving a Malibu, California, sheriff's station in the early morning hours of September 17, 2009.

She had been arrested the previous evening at an upscale restaurant after allgedly not paying for her meal. Patrons at the restaurant said Mitrice exhibited strange behavior.

Richardson's family has said the college honors graduate suffered from mental health issues and should have been kept at the sheriff's station until a relative arrived to pick her up.

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