<p><br /> A 47-year-old woman has confessed to killing her eight newborn children and hiding their bodies in a village in northern France.<br /> </p><p><br /> Dominique Cottrez and her husband, also in his forties, have been in custody since the bodies were found on Tuesday wrapped in plastic bags at two homes in Villers-au-Tertre, a sleepy village of about 650 people 125 miles north of Paris.<br /> </p><p><br /> She initially confessed in custody to killing two children at birth about ten years ago, before admitting to the murder of the six others, prosecutors said.<br /> </p><p><br /> Authorities have placed Cottrez, an auxiliary nurse, under formal investigation - a preliminary stage before criminal charges - for "voluntary murder of minors under the age of 15".<br /> </p><p><br /> Her husband, a carpenter, was also put under investigation for hiding the bodies and not alerting police.<br /> </p><p><br /> The prosecutor asked for the woman to be held in custody and the man to be freed under judicial supervision. There was no immediate comment from lawyers representing the couple.<br /> </p>
