Pennsylvania woman, Michele Kalina, charged in deaths of five infants/Michele Kalina Sentenced To The Maximum 20 To 40 Years In Prison.

A Pennsylvania woman was charged Monday with criminal homicide after forensic tests showed her to be the mother of four infants whose remains were found in her home in July, according to Berks County, Pennsylvania, District Attorney John Adams.
Authorities also linked her to a fifth set of infant remains found in a nearby landfill.
Michele Kalina, who has been in jail since she was arrested August 9 on charges relating to the discovery of the infants' remains at her home in Reading, was charged Monday with criminal homicide and five counts of "abuse of corpse" and is being held without bail, Adams said in a statement released by his office.
Kalina's teenage daughter first contacted authorities on July 29, unsure of what she had discovered in the living room closet, Adams told CNN.
Later that day, officers recovered the suspected remains of three infants from Kalina's apartment.
"These remains were stored in a living room closet and each infant was recovered from an individual plastic container," according to the district attorney's statement. "One of the containers contained an amount of cured cement, which was later determined to have encased the remains of one of the infants."
Detectives later recovered a fourth set of infant remains at the house, and found a bone believed to be from a fifth set of infant remains in a landfill.
Adams said DNA testing matched her positively to four of the five remains and a man Adams described as her boyfriend to three.
Adams said both the boyfriend and Kalina's husband denied knowledge of any pregnancies.
Kalina, a nurse's aide, "always sort of wore those scrubs and hid [her pregnancies] well," Adams told CNN.
According to the statement from Adams' office, the pathology report indicated four of the deaths were, "consistent with asphyxia, poisoning, or neglect."
"We may make the determination that we will charge her with four separate counts," Adams said. "However, this is a very unusual case and frankly we're going to have to discuss this with our forensic pathologist."
Kalina's attorney, public defender Holly Feeney, had no comment.

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OMG. So she has a husband and a boyfriend? I would like to find more information about this case. Such as how old some of the remains might be? How they conducted testing for DNA etc.

I heard on CNN last night she murdered the babies to keep her husband from finding out that she was having an affair.

A gruesome story has come out of Reading, Penn., worthy of any CSI or Law & Order script, where a 44-year-old nurse's aide has been charged with murder after the remains of babies were found in her apartment.

Michele Kalina was charged with causing the death of five infants whose remains were found in July. According to the Daily Mail, the remains were discovered by Michele Kalina's disabled husband and teenage daughter in a locked closet.

Kalina was arraigned Tuesday for criminal homicide, aggravated assault, and various other charges after being held on abuse-of-corpse charges.

The mother of eight, according to authorities, had given birth to six children over a 14-year span while having an affair. The boyfriend, like the husband, was unaware of five of the pregnancies and the remains. Kalina had given birth to one child in 2003, reportedly fathered by the boyfriend, and given the newborn up for adoption. At least three of the dead children are believed to be fathered by the boyfriend.

Police say that at least four of the children were born at or near term and were alive at birth. Their deaths were the result of homicide, the result of asphyxia, poisoning or neglect. Tests on the fifth set of remains were inconclusive.

The husband and daughter had been forbidden to look in the locked closet over the years. Although the circumstances for going through the closet's contents remain unclear, officers responded to a call in July from Michele Kalina's daughter. The responding officers said they did not think the bones were human and told Kalina's daughter and husband that they could throw them out.

Later in the day, police were summoned again. Investigators determined that the bones found were indeed human. A single bone from the thrown out remains was later recovered from a nearby landfill.

Two sets of remains were found in a cooler. Three more sets were found in a bag filled with cement.

When first questioned, Kalina told police she had forbidden her husband and daughter to ever go into the closet. She also said she "had been meaning to clean it."

It is unclear why she brought the babies' remains with her when her family moved from a house in Reading to a high-rise apartment.

Besides her daughter and the adopted child, also a girl, Michele Kalina was also mother to a son who suffered from cerebral palsy and died at a young age. Authorities do not believe his death was suspicious.

Kalina's husband said he suspected his wife was pregnant at least once. Her boyfriend told authorities that he had never suspected it and that Kalina had told him she had cysts on her fallopian tubes that she had drained at the hospital. Those "cysts" tended to reappear over the coming years, he told them.

Michele Kalina's macabre tale follows several stories out of Europe of mothers killing their own children over a period of years.

Dominique Cottrez, a 46-year-old French woman (and, oddly enough, also a nurse's aide), confessed in July to killing eight babies over a period of years, hiding their bodies in a garden and the garage of her home. MSNBC also reported that a German woman was convicted in 2006 of killing eight infants and burying them in the garden of her parents' home.

Michele Kalina told police she was an alcoholic and suffered from blackouts. She at first told police she had no idea how the remains of the babies ended up in her closet.

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The husband and daughter had been forbidden to look in the locked closet over the years. Although the circumstances for going through the closet's contents remain unclear, officers responded to a call in July from Michele Kalina's daughter. The responding officers said they did not think the bones were human and told Kalina's daughter and husband that they could throw them out.
OMG, can you imagine, LE told them to throw the bones out?
Later in the day, police were summoned again. Investigators determined that the bones found were indeed human. A single bone from the thrown out remains was later recovered from a nearby landfill.
It is unclear why she brought the babies' remains with her when her family moved from a house in Reading to a high-rise apartment.
Luckily the husband/daughter did not throw those bones out and called LE back! It outrages me that even one officer would tell someone to throw bones out before they for sure know they are not human!
This monster of a woman must be sick if she moved the babies with them! I don't know the psychological make up of this woman could be but she's a monster. I so feel for her husband and especially her daughter! How horrible.

It makes me ashamed to be from Pennsylvania.

I read an article this morning that said the AMA wants to start issuing tests for depression in all pregnant women.
Not that this monster falls into that category, however it may help women in the future that are unsure about their level of care for a child.

God are those police stupid or what? They always have to take in bones no matter what, especially bones hidden in a closet. The world is full of mediocrity, people just doing half-assed jobs to get through the day.

Berks County District Attorney John T. Adams said Tuesday that investigators do not know where a 44-year-old Reading woman kept five infants before she killed them.

And they do not know where Michele G.M. Kalina, a home-care aide for the elderly, gave birth, Adams said.

He said no one has reported seeing Kalina with any of the infants and that area hospitals have no record of Kalina giving birth.

"Nobody knows where she had the babies," Adams said. "We are still interested in gathering information."

Investigators said Kalina hid the pregnancies from her husband, Jeffrey E. Kalina, 54, and a boyfriend with whom she was having an affair for 14 years. Investigators have declined to release the boyfriend's name.

Between 1996 and 2010, investigators said, Kalina gave birth to three boys, one girl and another infant whose gender could not be determined.

Investigators said the infants were 32 to 43 weeks old when they were killed by asphyxiation, poisoning or neglect.

Police found the remains of four infants in her apartment in the 700 block of Court Street during searches in late July and early August, investigators said.

Remains of a fifth infant were found Aug. 6 in the Conestoga Landfill, New Morgan, authorities said.

DNA testing linked three infants to Kalina as the mother and the boyfriend as the father.

The evidence linked a fourth baby to Kalina as the mother, with the boyfriend as the possible father.

The DNA evidence on the fifth infant was inconclusive as to the identity of the parents.

Kalina is charged with criminal homicide and related counts in the deaths.

According to investigators:

The boyfriend said that shortly after he began seeing Kalina her stomach started to enlarge. He said Kalina told him that she had a cyst on her fallopian tube.

The boyfriend said that condition occurred as many as four times during their relationship.

The investigation began when Kalina's daughter, Elizabeth, 19, called Reading police at 5 a.m. July 29 to report that she found remains in a red cooler in a closet in the apartment.

Patrol officers looked at the remains and told Elizabeth and her father that the remains were not human. The father and daughter threw the cooler and the remains in the trash.

Later in the investigation, Elizabeth sent a photograph of a red cooler, a blood-covered jacket and human remains to Coroner Dennis J. Hess' office.

On Aug. 6, investigators went to the landfill with a cadaver-detection dog and found the red cooler and one bone. Hess said the jacket was not found.

"Nobody knows whether she had the babies at home or where she had them," he said. "Unless she talks, we won't get answers."

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A hearing scheduled today for a 44-year-old Reading woman accused of killing her five infants has been postponed.

Berks County District Attorney John T. Adams said Wednesday that the hearing for Michele G.M. Kalina was delayed because a prosecution witness is unavailable until next week.

The hearing has been rescheduled for Wednesday at 1 p.m. before District Judge Wally Scott.

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She looks too old to have babies. No words!!!!!!!

I swear, I look at these skanky women and read how old they are and the horrible deeds they've done---------and feel better about myself every day!

Why wouldn't you feel good about yourself? You're wonderbar!!!!!!!!!!

A Pennsylvania woman accused of killing at least four of her newborns to cover up an extramarital affair has waived her right to a preliminary hearing.

Michele Kalina appeared in court Wednesday in the eastern Pennsylvania city of Reading (RED'-ing). Authorities say she hid the remains of five babies, at least four born alive, in coolers or encased in concrete in her closet.

The 44-year-old Kalina faces one count of homicide and counts of abuse of a corpse and concealing the death of a child. Authorities determined the four babies were killed in a manner consistent with asphyxia, poisoning or neglect.

Prosecutors say Kalina hid at least six pregnancies from her husband and longtime boyfriend. One other child was given up for adoption.

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July 13 2011
A woman charged with killing five newborns conceived through extramarital affairs has been found mentally competent and is scheduled for a plea and sentencing hearing next month.

A Berks County judge declared Michele Kalina competent to stand trial Wednesday after reviewing independent psychiatric testing. A public defender had raised mental-health issues at a hearing last month, but withdrew her motion based on the new tests.

Kalina, 45, of Reading, is now set to plead to unknown charges on Aug. 4, and be sentenced immediately afterward. A gag order prevents lawyers from discussing the case.

The home-health aide is charged with one count each of criminal homicide and aggravated assault, and multiple counts of abuse of a corpse and concealing the death of a child.

DNA tests show she conceived most, if not all, of the babies through a long affair with a co-worker. Neither he nor Kalina's husband knew about the pregnancies.

Kalina moved the remains with her and kept them in a locked closet until her teen daughter found them in the family's high-rise apartment last year and called police, authorities say.

One set of bones was entombed in cement and the others in a cooler, a plastic tub and a cardboard box.

Kalina had no prenatal care during the five pregnancies, and it's not clear where she gave birth, authorities have said.

She also had a sixth secret pregnancy that culminated with the 2003 birth in a Reading hospital of a baby girl that she gave up for adoption. That child was also conceived with the boyfriend, DNA tests show.

A prosecutor described him last year as "overwhelmed and shocked" by news of the pregnancies.

Kalina had borne two children with her husband Jeffrey, in 1987 and 1991. The oldest, a boy, had cerebral palsy and died of natural causes in 2000.

Women who kill newborns are usually young, first-time mothers who are afraid to reveal their pregnancies, experts say. They are rarely found to be mentally ill, according to Geoffrey R. McKee, a forensic psychologist at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine who wrote the book, "Why Mothers Kill."

Kalina, like many of them, appears to have been socially isolated. A native of Rockland County, N.Y., she had no extended family nearby, and seemingly no close women friends.

Her secrets went undiscovered for years, and were only unearthed by her daughter's curiosity. Kalina had told her family not to look in the locked closet.

Neither the daughter nor her husband came to court to see her Wednesday.

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8/4/2011
A woman who said she secretly gave birth in her bathtub five times, killed one of the babies and hid all five bodies in a closet pleaded guilty to murder Thursday and was sentenced to the maximum 20 to 40 years in prison.

Sherrif's deputies escort Michele Kalina, 45, center, to her sentencing from central booking Thursday, Aug. 4 in Reading, Pa. Kalina was sentenced to 20 to 40 years in prison after pleading guilty to murder in connection with the deaths of five newborns.

Sherrif's deputies escort Michele Kalina, 45, center, to her sentencing from central booking Thursday, Aug. 4 in Reading, Pa. Kalina was sentenced to 20 to 40 years in prison after pleading guilty to murder in connection with the deaths of five newborns.

Sherrif's deputies escort Michele Kalina, 45, center, to her sentencing from central booking Thursday, Aug. 4 in Reading, Pa. Kalina was sentenced to 20 to 40 years in prison after pleading guilty to murder in connection with the deaths of five newborns.

Michele Kalina, 46, of Reading, conceived the babies through a long affair with a co-worker and hid the pregnancies from him and her husband. She told a psychiatrist she had wrapped each baby with a towel and then stored the body in a tub or container in a locked closet.

She thought four were "essentially stillborn" and denied doing anything "malicious," testified Dr. Jerome Gottlieb, a defense psychiatrist. But over the course of several visits with him, she recalled that the third baby, a boy, had moved. That death is the basis for the one count of murder.

"She (said she) might have wrapped the baby too tightly with a towel so that the baby couldn't breathe," Gottlieb said.

That boy's body was then encased in cement and stored with the others — in a cooler, tub or cardboard box — in a closet. The five bodies decomposed for years until her teenage daughter found the skeletal remains last year. By then, authorities could not determine how the babies had died.

Kalina, a home-health aide, also pleaded guilty to five counts each of abuse of a corpse and concealing a child's death.

Gottlieb described her as an alcoholic who was intoxicated during the births and does not fully recall what took place. She also suffers from severe depression and other mental-health issues, he said.

Public defender Holly Feeney sought leniency on grounds that Kalina had learned to deny reality as she endured severe physical and sexual abuse as a child. Gottlieb suggested she put memories of the babies in a "psychological closet," much as she put their remains in a physical one.

Berks County Judge Linda K.M. Ludgate didn't buy the argument. She said Kalina had left the newborns in tubs and containers "like garbage," and rebuked her for not getting help, at least after the first delivery.

"After the first time she gave birth in the bathtub and wrapped the baby and put the baby in a container, she could have stopped … and asked for help, but she did not," Ludgate said. Instead, "she got pregnant and gave birth again and again and again and again."

Kalina sobbed as she told the judge she now has nightmares about her children.

"I cry for the babies, and nothing I can do can bring them back," Kalina said in a monotone voice, reading from a statement. "I am very upset and ashamed about what happened."

Kalina is on several anti-depressants, but Gottlieb said he fears she will attempt suicide as her memories surface over time.

Jeffrey Kalina, 54, a disabled stay-at-home father for much of their 25-year marriage, testified that he still loves his wife and would have raised the lover's children had he known about them.

"Sure, of course. Day One. Moment One," he said.

Throughout questioning, he said their marriage had not been sexual in 18 years, and said he had not seen his wife naked during that time, when she carried babies to full- or nearly full-term births.

"She was always slim," he said.

Only once, in 2003, did he suspect his wife might be pregnant, but his daughter rejected the idea.

Kalina went on to deliver that baby at a Reading hospital. She told the staff she was separated and gave the girl up for adoption. DNA tests show the girl is also the lover's child.

Kalina had gone to Albright College for three semesters before getting married in 1986, at age 19.

The couple's first child, Andrew, was born the next year but suffered from cerebral palsy and serious developmental delays. Jeffrey Kalina blamed the problems on "a bad delivery." Michele Kalina cared for the boy at home for seven years, before her husband was laid off and became the caregiver to Andrew and their daughter Elizabeth, who was born in 1991. Andrew died of natural causes in 2000.

Kalina sometimes worked 70 hours a week or more to support the family, Jeffrey Kalina said.

She started the affair with a co-worker in 1996 and became pregnant that year. He declined to testify or attend Thursday's hearing, and has not returned calls for comment left at his Reading-area home. According to Gottlieb, he at one point refused Kalina's request to use condoms during their affair.

Gottlieb believes Kalina kept the babies' remains as a reminder of her shame over their deaths and the affair. She looked at the hidden remains of the first baby at least once and became distraught, the psychiatrist said.

"This woman's very ill. If she were just trying to get rid of them as an inconvenience, she would not have left the remains in a closet," Gottlieb said. "I think we can agree that's bizarre."

Had she disposed of them, she might never have gotten caught, he said.

But Assistant District Attorney M. Theresa Johnson argued the point another way. The bodies might have been discovered in time for authorities to learn how the babies died, she said.

She also disputed Gottlieb's description of Kalina as a fearful, haunted abuse victim.

"She wasn't fearful. She was brazen. She gave birth to these babies in a bathtub in her own home where there were other people present," Johnson said.

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Had forgotten about this horribly sad and disgusting case. Thank you for the update but wish she had gotten the DP!! 5 innocent lives taken by this monster.  

I too had forgotten about this case! I agree w/ everything you said above Wrap.
Thanks for the update Nite!