The Five KALINA Babies (1996-2010) - Reading PA

A Pennsylvania woman who stowed the remains of four children in her closet and threw bones from another into a landfill was charged with five counts of murder today, authorities announced.

Michele Kalina, 44, had previously been charged with abuse of a corpse on Aug. 9 after her husband and daughter discovered containers with the tiny bodies inside in the hallway closet of their Reading apartment.The Berks County coroner said that four of the fetuses were born alive and then killed. According to District Attorney John T. Adams, a pathologist concluded Oct. 14 that the deaths were due to non-natural causes "consistent with aphyxia, poisoning or neglect." Kalina, a home health-care aide, had conceived the children through an extramarital affair with a man who was kept unaware of her pregnancies, according to the Associated Press.In August, a forensic anthropologist determined that the remains stashed in two of the containers were those of a one-month-old infant and a 20-week fetus. A third container held a two-by-three foot block of concrete. An x-ray of the block encased an "unknown mass." After cracking it open, investigators found more human remains ranging in age from 32 weeks to 43 weeks gestation, investigators said. Additional bones were uncovered by cadaver dogs in a nearby landfill, Adams said. Investigators said Kalina had a daughter by her paramour who was given up for adoption in 2003, according to the Associated Press. With her husband, Kalina has a teenage daughter and a son who died in 2000 after a long illness. Kalina has been jailed without bail since the discovery the remains.

A woman who secretly conceived several children through an extramarital affair killed at least four of her newborns, then kept their remains in coolers or encased in concrete in her closet until family members found them this year, authorities said Monday.Michele Kalina, 44, of Reading, hid at least six pregnancies from her husband and longtime boyfriend, according to officials in Berks County, where a homicide charge was filed against the home-health aide.DNA tests show the bones found in a locked closet came from five babies, at least four of whom were born alive, authorities said. The boyfriend fathered three and possibly four of the victims. Tests on the fifth baby were inconclusive.Dogs trained to search for human remains have scoured Kalina's current and former homes in the Reading area."I'm very confident we have all the babies," District Attorney John T. Adams said at an afternoon news conference.Kalina has been in custody since August on abuse-of-corpse charges and is being held without bail after she was arraigned Monday on one count of criminal homicide, aggravated assault and related charges. Additional counts may be filed before trial, Adams said.A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Thursday. Public defender Holly Feeney declined to comment Monday.Kalina also bore a daughter from the same affair in 2003 but gave the baby up for adoption, authorities said. She and her husband, Jeffrey, have a 19-year-old daughter and had a 13-year-old son with cerebral palsy who died in 2000. That death is not suspicious, Adams said.The husband and daughter found the infant remains this summer in a closet in several coolers, one of which was filled with cured cement, police said. At least four of the babies were born at or near term, then killed in a manner consistent with asphyxia, poisoning or neglect, authorities determined.With only scant information from Kalina herself, investigators have no idea where the babies were born or how they died, making the case a tough circumstantial one to prove.However, Adams said he believes Kalina's brief statements to police after the remains were found, and her reaction to their involvement, show evidence of a guilty conscience. She told authorities she had been pregnant only twice, with her son and daughter, and had never had a stillbirth, Adams said. And she fled her family's apartment after learning police had been called about the bones in late July.The officers who first responded to a 5 a.m. call from her daughter did not think the bones were human and said she and her father could throw them out, which they did. Later that day, the pair called again to say they had found additional remains. Investigators then suspected they were indeed human.One bone — from the remains that were thrown out — was later found at a landfill but did not provide enough evidence for officials to determine whether the baby was born alive, authorities said.Jeffrey Kalina had suspected at least once that his wife was pregnant, police said. The boyfriend, who was not identified, said he did not, although he said he noticed her abdomen growing after they began dating in 1996.Kalina told him she had cysts on her fallopian tubes that she had drained at a hospital, he said. The "cysts" returned several times over the years, he said."She always had a job where she wore scrubs," Adams said.Kalina has what Adams called an "exemplary" work history, with 14 years on the job and no maternity or extended medical leaves. Her employer, a home-health agency, declined to comment Monday.Police did not find any records to show she got prenatal care or gave birth in local hospitals, except for the hospital birth of the daughter who was adopted. The boyfriend told police he did not know about that child, either."He had no idea," Adams said.Kalina told police she is an alcoholic prone to blackouts.Until her arrest, she lived in a high-rise apartment with her husband, who is disabled, and their daughter. Jeffrey Kalina told authorities that the containers had been moved to the apartment with other belongings from their prior home in Reading in 2008.In interviews in early August, Kalina told police she had forbidden her husband and daughter from going in the closet, according to the police affidavit."Michele Kalina further stated that she had been meaning to clean that closet," the affidavit states.

I hope she never sees the outside world again. Sick. Im nauseated right now

Originally Published: 11/4/2010
Kalina waives hearing on charges of killing 5 infants
Michele Kalina, 44, charged with killing 5 infants in 14 years
A 44-year-old Reading woman waived a hearing Wednesday on charges that she killed five infants from 1996 to 2010.

Michele G.M. Kalina of the 700 block of Court Street is accused of criminal homicide, abuse of corpse and related charges in the deaths of the infants, ranging in gestational age from 32 to 43 weeks old.

Authorities said Kalina's boyfriend, with whom she was having an affair, is the father of three and possibly four of the infants. Investigators have declined to release his name. They said further testing is needed to determine the father of the fifth infant.

Prosecutors said Kalina's DNA matched the DNA of the remains.

Kalina is charged with an umbrella charge of criminal homicide, but prosecutors will provide specific charges when Kalina is arraigned in Berks County Court before Judge Linda K.M. Ludgate in December.

Those charges could include first- and third-degree murder and voluntary and involuntary manslaughter.

"We were prepared and ready for the hearing," District Attorney John T. Adams said. "The defense acknowledged that we could prove the charges for court."

Kalina's lawyer, Assistant Public Defender Holly Feeney, decided to waive the hearing after meeting with First Assistant District Attorney M. Theresa Johnson and Assistant District Attorney Adrian Shchuka to discuss evidence.

Prosecutors said Kalina's daughter, Elizabeth, 19, would have testified during the hearing before District Judge Wally Scott that she found the remains in plastic containers in a closet in the family apartment in July.

Kalina has been in the county prison since Aug. 9, when she was initially charged with abuse of corpse.

The charges were upgraded to homicide after a 21/2-month investigation.

According to court records:

Kalina's husband, Jeffrey, 54, and the daughter notified police July 29 that they had found remains in a red cooler in a closet in Kalina's apartment.

Police told them that the remains were not human. The daughter took photographs of the remains before discarding them in a trash bin.

The father and daughter discovered three more containers with remains in the same closet. One of the remains was encased in cement.

On Aug. 5 police found a plastic bag of remains in the same closet.

Police also found a letter Kalina wrote to her boyfriend informing him that she had a baby girl on Aug. 23, 2003, and offered it for adoption.

On Aug. 6, police went to Conestoga Landfill, New Morgan, where they found a red cooler and one human bone.

Kalina has denied killing her babies. She told her husband, "I am concerned I'm being framed."

She told her boyfriend that when her stomach enlarged it was because she had cysts on her fallopian tubes.

Dr. Neil A. Hoffman, a Reading Hospital forensic pathologist, ruled the deaths homicides. He said they were caused by violence, including asphyxia, poisoning or neglect.

Kalina is in the county jail without bail.

http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=261425

US woman charged with baby murders
Sydney Morning Herald / 26th Oct 2010
A US woman who allegedly stowed the remains of four children in her closet and threw the bones of another into a landfill has been charged with five counts of murder.

Michele Kalina, 44, had previously been charged with abuse of a corpse on August 9 after her husband and daughter discovered containers with the tiny bodies inside a closet of their Philadelphia apartment.

The children were born alive and then killed, the Berks County coroner ruled. According to District Attorney John T Adams, a pathologist concluded on October 14 that the deaths were due to non-natural causes "consistent with asphyxia, poisoning, or neglect".

In August, a forensic anthropologist determined that remains stashed in two of the containers were those of a month-old infant and a foetus.

A third container held a block of concrete. An x-ray of the block revealed an "unknown mass" encased in the cement. After cracking it open, investigators found more human remains ranging in age from 32 weeks' to 43 weeks' gestation. Additional bones were uncovered by cadaver dogs in a nearby landfill, Adams said.

Kalina, a home health-care aide, had conceived the children through an extramarital affair with a man who was kept unaware of her pregnancies, according to The Associated Press.

Investigators said Kalina had a daughter by her paramour who was given up for adoption in 2003, according to The Associated Press. With her husband, Kalina has a teenage daughter and a son who died in 2000 after a long illness.

She has been jailed without bail.

http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-world/us-woman-charged-with-baby-murders-20101026-171v7.html

Mom suspected of killing 5 newborns set for plea

Friday, May 06, 2011



PHILADELPHIA - May 6, 2011 (WPVI) -- A northeast Pennsylvania woman suspected of killing five newborns and keeping their skeletal remains in a locked closet has negotiated a plea.
Michele Kalina, 44, of Reading is set for a combined plea and sentencing hearing on June 2, court records show.
Investigators believe the home-health aide secretly gave birth to five babies conceived through an extramarital affair with a co-worker, and immediately killed them.
She gave birth to a sixth child of his in a hospital in 2003 and put the girl up for adoption, authorities said. The boyfriend was unaware of the pregnancies.
Kalina is married and has a teenage daughter, and had a disabled son who died of natural causes in 2000 at age 13.
Berks County District Attorney John Adams and public defender Holly Feeney each declined comment Friday, citing a gag order.
The proposed plea agreement has not been filed and it's not clear what charges Kalina will admit, or if the defense will raise mental-health issues. She was charged in August with one general homicide count and multiple counts of abuse of a corpse and concealing the death of a child.
The plea may not end the many mysteries surrounding the case, including where Kalina gave birth, why she delivered the one child at a hospital and why she kept the infants' remains, even when her family moved across town.
One set was buried in cement and the others in a cooler, a plastic tub and a cardboard box.
After the family moved into a high-rise apartment near the county courthouse, she kept the containers in a locked closet, with strict orders that her husband and daughter keep out, according to a police affidavit.
But curiosity got the better of the 19-year-old daughter one night last summer when Kalina was out. She made the gruesome discovery, and called police.
The officers thought they were merely animal remains. But they were called back later that day, July 29, when the other sets of remains were found.
Kalina has been in custody since her arrest on the lesser charges a few days later. The homicide charge was not filed until extensive testing to determine whether the babies were born alive, and to whom.
DNA tests revealed the boyfriend fathered at least three and possibly four of the five slain infants; there was not enough material from the fifth set to test. The size of the bones suggests the infants were born at or near term.
"I think she was hiding them because they were from the boyfriend," Assistant District Attorney M. Theresa Johnson, the lead prosecutor on the case, told The Associated Press last year. She did not return messages Friday.
Jeffrey Kalina had wondered at least once if his wife was pregnant. And Kalina had explained to the boyfriend that she had abdominal "cysts" she sometimes needed to have drained. They started dating in 1999, and she became pregnant a short time later.
The boyfriend has not been identified, but Johnson previously described him as "overwhelmed and shocked" by the news.
He wants to give the infants a proper burial when the criminal case is over, authorities have said.

http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=news/crime&id=8116195

Judge seeks 2nd evaluation in dead infants case
6/3/2011

Berks County Judge Linda K.M. Ludgate said Thursday that an evaluation by a second psychiatrist is needed for her to rule on the mental competency of a Reading woman accused of killing five infants.

Michele G.M. Kalina, 44, of the 700 block of Court Street is charged with killing five infants ranging in gestational ages from 32 to 43 weeks.

Kalina's attorney, Assistant Public Defender Holly Feeney, had an evaluation by one psychiatrist entered as evidence in the case in a hearing Thursday before Ludgate.

But Ludgate said the single evaluation is insufficient for her to make a ruling.

She said she also expected herself and prosecutors to seek evaluations of Kalina, but First Assistant District Attorney M. Theresa Johnson and Assistant District Attorney Adrian Shchuka said they had no plans to do so if Ludgate was going to order one herself.

Ludgate ordered an evaluation done by Dr. John O'Brien, a Philadelphia psychiatrist.

At a proceeding expected in July, Ludgate said she will either rule Kalina incompetent to stand trial or rule her competent, which would result in a guilty plea and Kalina's sentencing.

If Kalina is found to be incompetent, she would be sent for treatment at a mental health facility until she is determined to be competent to face charges, but that often does not happen.

According to court records:

Kalina's husband, Jeffrey, 54, and daughter, Elizabeth, 19, notified police July 29 that they found remains in a red cooler in a closet in their home.

Police told them that the remains were not human. The daughter took photographs and threw the remains in a trash container.

The father and daughter later found three more containers of remains in the same closet. On Aug. 5, police found a plastic bag of remains in the same closet.

They also found a letter Kalina wrote to her boyfriend informing him that she gave birth to a baby girl on Aug. 23, 2003, and offered the infant for adoption.

On Aug. 6, police went to Conestoga Landfill in New Morgan, where they found a red cooler and one human bone.

Kalina has denied killing the infants.

http://readingeagle.com/Article.aspx?id=311946

20-40 years for Pa. woman who hid baby remains
Thursday, August 04, 2011
READING, Pa. - August 4, 2011 (WPVI) -- 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.
Michele Kalina, 46, of Reading, conceived the babies through a long-running 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," Dr. Jerome Gottlieb, a defense psychiatrist testified. 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 wrapped in towels, clothing and bags, then encased in cement in a tub stored with the others in a closet. The five bodies decomposed for years until her teen daughter found the skeletal remains last year.

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 for all of the births and does not fully recall what took place. She also suffers from severe depression and other mental-health issues, he said.

A public defender sought leniency on grounds that she had learned to deny reality in order to endure severe physical and sexual abuse as a child.

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.

"She got pregnant again and again and again and again," Ludgate said.

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

"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."

http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=news/local&id=8288398