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Woman charged after six infant bodies found in Canadian locker

An employee stands near the scene where infant remains were found in various states of decomposition in Winnipeg, Manitoba October 21, 2014. REUTERS/Lyle Stafford

By Rod Nickel WINNIPEG Manitoba (Reuters) - Canadian police said on Wednesday they have charged a woman with concealing the bodies of six infants in a storage locker, but are not handling the incident as a homicide investigation. Winnipeg Police Service discovered what officers initially thought were the bodies of four babies on Monday afternoon after being alerted by storage company U-Haul, a subsidiary of Amerco. The police have since arrested the Winnipeg woman who was renting the locker in the western Canadian city. Andrea Giesbrecht, also known as Andrea Naworynski, 40, was charged with six counts of concealing the body of a child and breaching probation connected to previous incidents of fraud. She remains in custody. Police said autopsies are not complete. Constable Eric Hofley said a forensic examination and analysis would likely take months to answer questions such as whether Giesbrecht is related to the babies. "It will be a long time before we are able to answer these questions," said Hofley, who would not comment on the state of the remains. "Our belief is that these were newborn children." Investigators from the police service's child abuse unit are handling the case. Hofley said homicide charges have not been ruled out. Razmin Mansoub, president of U-Haul Company of Central Canada, said late on Tuesday that the company would offer counseling to the employees who discovered the bodies. (Reporting by Rod Nickel in Winnipeg, Manitoba; Editing by David Gregorio and Leslie Adler)