WINNIPEG, Manitoba, Oct. 23 (UPI) -- Police arrested a Winnipeg woman who had rented the storage locker where the bodies of six dead infants were discovered earlier this week.
Andrea Giesbrecht, 40, was arrested Wednesday outside her north Winnipeg home and charged with six counts of concealing a body and one count of breaching probation.
Winnipeg Police Const. Eric Hofley said that while there are no homicide charges yet, extensive forensic analysis will need to determine how the babies died, their ages or how long they were in the locker. Investigators will also determine whether the babies are related to Giesbrecht.
"The forensics that are going to be involved in this investigation, they're numerous," Hofley said Wednesday. "It will be a long time before we're able to answer these questions -- if at all."
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Police were initially unable to determine how many bodies were in the storage locker when they were alerted by staff at the West Alexander U-Haul facility on Monday. The staff were taking inventory of a delinquent locker when they discovered what they thought were "three or four" bodies in various states of decomposition.
Court documents show Giesbrecht, who also used the name Andrea Naworynski, received a suspended sentence and two years in probation in 2012 after pleading guilty to defrauding a senior neighbor out of $5,000. Giesbrecht was also described as a gambling addict.
Giesbrecht's lawyer, Greg Brodsky, described his client as "in bewilderment" over the charges.
He said she was initially arrested on murder charges, but those charges were not ultimately filed in court.
"The forensic examination is really important," Brodsky said. "There has to be an autopsy conducted and more investigation done in order to determine where this case is going."
Hofley said it could be "months" before forensic analysis begins to answer the many questions surrounding the case.