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Print This StoryMystery Enshrouds Uncovered Baby Remains
Remains Of Three Infants To Be Autopsied, Tested
POSTED: 6:58 a.m. CDT August 6, 2003
UPDATED: 7:07 a.m. CDT August 6, 2003
The Anoka County medical examiner plans to conduct autopsies Wednesday on the remains of three infants discovered in a grisly moment when a couple was sifting through boxes left to them by a deceased relative.
Michael and Kathleen Manning discovered the remains while unpacking the items in their Coon Rapids home Monday.
After the initial discovery, the Mannings contacted authorities and once they were at the house the remains of another infant were found.
Then the Mannings found what appeared to be the remains of a third child in another inherited trunk on Tuesday, Anoka County Sheriff's Capt. Robert Aldrich said.
The babies appear to have been dead for at least a decade.
The trunks had belonged to Kathleen Manning's mother, who lived in Minneapolis and died in 1999. The Mannings, whose Manning Transfer business stores trailers, retrieved the trunks from one of their trailers recently to begin sorting through them.
Officials say the first step is to determine the age of the remains. Then the state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension will conduct DNA tests to try and determine possible relatives, according to the St. Paul Pioneer Press.
"There's just so much incomplete information available to us that we're just doing everything we can to avoid jumping to conclusions," Aldrich told the Pioneer Press. "We know that the trunk came from that deceased relative's property. We don't know if she was holding it for someone at this point."
One criminal profiler told KSTP-TV that, with multiple babies, authorities may be considering that Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy was involved.
That's a condition in which a mother kills her children when the close attention from others after child birth diminishes, Pat Brown told the television station.
Aldrich said they had asked him not to release the mother's name. He also said that the woman had collected belongings from other family members who had died over the years, and it wasn't clear how she came to have the trunks. He said it was possible that she, too, didn't know what was inside.
"The family is concerned that if her name is released that people will assume that she's some kind of monster," Aldrich said.
"They're just the greatest people," said Linda Johnson, who lives across the street from the Mannings, "and I bet they're terribly upset."
Michael and Kathleen Manning discovered the remains while unpacking the items in their Coon Rapids home Monday.
After the initial discovery, the Mannings contacted authorities and once they were at the house the remains of another infant were found.
Then the Mannings found what appeared to be the remains of a third child in another inherited trunk on Tuesday, Anoka County Sheriff's Capt. Robert Aldrich said.
The babies appear to have been dead for at least a decade.
The trunks had belonged to Kathleen Manning's mother, who lived in Minneapolis and died in 1999. The Mannings, whose Manning Transfer business stores trailers, retrieved the trunks from one of their trailers recently to begin sorting through them.
Officials say the first step is to determine the age of the remains. Then the state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension will conduct DNA tests to try and determine possible relatives, according to the St. Paul Pioneer Press.
"There's just so much incomplete information available to us that we're just doing everything we can to avoid jumping to conclusions," Aldrich told the Pioneer Press. "We know that the trunk came from that deceased relative's property. We don't know if she was holding it for someone at this point."
One criminal profiler told KSTP-TV that, with multiple babies, authorities may be considering that Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy was involved.
That's a condition in which a mother kills her children when the close attention from others after child birth diminishes, Pat Brown told the television station.
Aldrich said they had asked him not to release the mother's name. He also said that the woman had collected belongings from other family members who had died over the years, and it wasn't clear how she came to have the trunks. He said it was possible that she, too, didn't know what was inside.
"The family is concerned that if her name is released that people will assume that she's some kind of monster," Aldrich said.
"They're just the greatest people," said Linda Johnson, who lives across the street from the Mannings, "and I bet they're terribly upset."
Copyright 2003 by Channel 4000. The Associated Press contributed to this report. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
