EIGHT TEALIGHT candles placed discreetly under a plant at the doorstep of number 8 offered the most eloquent response anyone in this numbed community could muster.
One for each of the newborn babies whose corpses were discovered by police this week, six at this house on a residential cul de sac and two more buried behind a farmhouse at the far end of the village. Some blankets had been thrown over the gate yesterday to obscure the view of the garage where police found the remains. The corpses had been placed in sealed plastic bags and hidden in a corner.
In Villers-au-Tertre, a quiet commuter village surrounded by cornfields near the northern city of Lille, locals spoke in disbelief at the horror of what may be France’s biggest modern infanticide case.
Dominique Cottrez, the 46-year-old care worker who police say quickly confessed to having suffocated eight of her babies after giving birth to them on her own, grew up in the village. Her husband is a carpenter serving his third term as a local councillor. He was released without charge yesterday after he told police he knew nothing of the pregnancies or the deaths.
At the musty Café des Sports – along with the church and the monument to the war dead, one of three landmarks in the village – Philippe Leclerq spoke of a community “stupefied”. “It’s just shock. People don’t understand,” said the 37-year-old. “He’s a friend. We’d go out together whenever there was something to celebrate. He’s completely ordinary.”
Another resident, who asked not to be named, said he knew Ms Cottrez – “a very nice woman” – since they were children. “She is very shy,” he remarked. “A small woman, and she had weight problems. I used to pass her in the car, but she didn’t really go out much for the past year and a half.” The couple, who have two adult daughters and two grandchildren, recently celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary. They once lived in a farmhouse belonging to Ms Cottrez’s late parents, which is where the current owners found the remains while digging in the garden on Saturday.
The farmhouse was deserted yesterday, the curtains drawn and a child’s buggy abandoned in the back garden.