Michele Kalina, Pa. Mom, Killed Her 4 Newborns, Kept Bones in Cooler, Say Police

READING, Pa. (CBS/KYW) Michele Kalina, a Pennsylvania nurse's aide, has been charged with homicide in connection with five sets of infant remains that were found in her apartment.

Authorities have charged the 44-year-old with causing the death of at least four of the five infants whose remains were found in July.

Investigators say Kalina - who is married - conceived the infants through an affair with a man who was unaware of the pregnancies. They say she also had a daughter by him, whom she gave up for adoption in 2003.

Kalina and her husband have a daughter and they had a disabled son who died ten years ago.

Police say Kalina's husband and daughter found the remains in a closet in their apartment, three encased in a bag filled with cement and two others stuffed in a cooler.

The Berks County district attorney now says at least four of the infants were born alive, at or near term, and killed by smothering, poisoning, or neglect.

According to CBS affiliate KYW, Kalina at first told police she had no idea how the remains ended up in her closet, even after the husband and daughter told investigators she had told them never to look there. Later, Kalina told police she was an alcoholic subject to blackouts.

Police say Kalina's husband suspected she was pregnant, but that Kalina told him she had cysts on her fallopian tubes which had been drained but which occasionally recurred.

Kalina has been in prison on abuse-of-corpse charges, and the judge revoked bail after today's arraignment.

Kalina's attorney says people should keep an open mind, but declined further comment.