Michele Kalina: The Infants Hidden in a Pennsylvania Closet
Background
Michele Kalina was a home-health aide from Reading, Pennsylvania, whose case became known after the remains of five infants were discovered inside her family's apartment in July 2010. Although Kalina is sometimes described as a serial killer, the legal outcome was more limited: she pleaded guilty to one count of third-degree murder because prosecutors could conclusively prove a live birth in only one case. She also pleaded guilty to five counts of abusing a corpse and five counts of concealing the death of a child.
Kalina was married to Jeffrey Kalina and had two publicly identified children with him. Their son, Andrew, had cerebral palsy and died in 2000 at the age of 13. Their daughter, Elizabeth, was born in 1991. Beginning during the 1990s, Kalina conducted a long-term affair with a male coworker. Investigators concluded that the affair produced several secret pregnancies. The coworker was identified through DNA as the father of at least three of the five infants whose remains were recovered, while the available results concerning the other infants were less certain.
The Secret Pregnancies
Authorities believed that Kalina concealed repeated pregnancies from her husband, her lover, her daughter and her coworkers. When people noticed changes in her appearance, she reportedly explained that she suffered from recurring cysts that caused abdominal swelling and needed to be drained. No hospital records documented the five deliveries connected to the recovered remains.
Kalina later told a psychiatrist that the births occurred privately in a bathtub at home. She said that after each delivery she wrapped the infant in a towel and placed the body in a bag, tub, cooler or other container. She then kept the containers inside a locked closet that members of her family had been warned not to enter. When the family moved from an earlier residence to an apartment in Reading, Kalina transported the concealed remains with her.
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