The case of a Winnipeg woman accused of hiding remains of six babies and having an affair has offered more details about the matter. Her husband and a former friend took the stand on Tuesday.
The Star reported that the woman in question, Andrea Giesbrecht, has been secretly meeting with her boyfriend while she was married for a number of years. The extramarital affair reportedly led to pregnancies said the former friend, Lyn Burdett, who took the stand on Tuesday. The pregnancies were concealed by Giesbrecht and used a storage locker to hide the remains of the infants.
The mother-of-two faces six counts of concealing bodies. Each charge carries a maximum of two years in prison.
Burdett continued to reveal that 42-year-old Giesbrecht was seeing a boyfriend for a few years 10 years ago and in one occasion, she used Burdett in order to spend the weekend with the boyfriend. Burdett noted that Giesbrecht told her husband she was going to Mahnomen, Minnesota with Burdett but the truth was she was only going to her boyfriend's house.
The former friend of Giesbrecht was asked if she felt bad about helping the suspect to find a way to be with her boyfriend but Burdett said no as the suspect reportedly said many bad things about her husband, Jeremy. This testimony was the first ever mention that there was marital strife between Giesbrecht and her husband.
The husband of Giesbrecht took the stand on Wednesday and said that he never noticed his wife being pregnant regarding the six infants' remains found but he did know that she was pregnant with their first son. Giesbrecht and Jeremy have two children together. He did acknowledge that their relationship was on and off for many years and that they are still married now.
As per an obstetrics and gynecology expert, Giesbrecht was pregnant 18 times from the ages of 20 to 38. A witness named Gayle Martens testified in court saying that Giesbrecht did have nine legally induced abortions and one unspecified abortion between 20 and 37 years old. Jeremy said that he was aware of the abortions but was not aware of the other pregnancies.
He also said that he had vasectomy in 2011 but it was never confirmed if it was successful as he never went in for follow-up appointment. It was also found out that Jeremy was the biological father of the remains found inside the storage locker.
Giesbrecht was arrested in October 2014 after the remains were found inside a Winnipeg U-Haul storage locker she rented. It was not clear how long the remains were there but most were decayed. Also, it was found out that the infants were either near full term or at full term and were most likely born alive.
