Pa. Woman Charged In Deaths of Infants Found In Closet

READING, Pa. (CBS) -- A Reading (Berks County) nurse's aide has been charged with homicide in connection with five sets of infant remains, four of which were found in her apartment.

Authorities have charged 44-year-old Michele Kalina (above) with causing the death of at least four of five infants whose remains were found in July.

Investigators say Kalina -- who is married -- conceived the infants through an affair with a man who was unaware of the pregnancies. They say she also had a daughter by him, whom she gave up for adoption in 2003.

Kalina and her husband have a daughter and they had a disabled son who died ten years ago.

Police say Kalina's husband and daughter found the some of the remains in a closet in their apartment.  Police say at least one infant corpse was in a bag, one had been encased in a container of cement, and two others were stuffed in coolers.

A subsequent investigation by police using cadaver dogs unearthed additional remains at the town landfill.  Investigators think those remains were thrown away by Kalina and were taken to the dump by a trash truck.

The Berks County district attorney now says at least four of the infants were born alive, at or near term, and killed by smothering, poisoning, or neglect.

Kalina at first told police she had no idea how the remains ended up in the living room closet, even after the husband and daughter told investigators she had told them never to look there.  Later, Kalina told police she was an alcoholic subject to blackouts.

Police say Kalina's husband suspected she was pregnant but that Kalina told him she had cysts on her fallopian tubes which had been drained but which occasionally recurred.

Kalina has been in prison on abuse-of-corpse charges, and the judge revoked bail after today's arraignment.

Kalina's attorney says people should keep an open mind but declined further comment.

Reported by Pat Loeb, KYW Newsradio; Robin Rieger, CBS 3.

Photo provided