Pennsylvania woman held without bail after 4 dead infants found in home

Theresa Braine, New York Daily News on Sep 22, 2025

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A Pennsylvania woman remained jailed without bail Sunday after four dead babies were found stashed in bags throughout her rental home after she was evicted, state police said.

Jessica Marie Mauthe, 39, was charged Thursday with one count each of criminal homicide and involuntary manslaughter, and four counts each of concealing the death of a child and abuse of a corpse, Pennsylvania State Police said in a statement.

Landlord Brent Flanigan had evicted Mauthe from her Cardogan Township home, about 35 miles northeast of Pittsburgh, on Aug. 14 after she hadn’t paid rent in nearly a year, he told police. On Aug. 30, he changed the locks.

Last Saturday, as Flanigan and a worker cleared the house for the next tenant, they noticed a foul odor emanating from a trash bag in a bedroom closet.

“I just knew it was something bad. I knew there was something dead in there,” Flanigan told TribLive.

Inside was the grisly find, an apparent dead infant. He called police, who found two more bodies in an attic after interviewing Mauthe. She told police she had given birth about a year earlier while on the toilet, according to the Leader Times, citing an affidavit and a complaint.

“She could hear the child making several noises,” police wrote, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “Mauthe removed the child from the toilet, wrapped a towel around the infant’s entire body, where it remained until it stopped making noises.”

Then she put the towel-swaddled body into garbage bags and stashed it in the closet, she told police, and indicated there were two more in the attic. She said that after the first birth, which authorities believe occurred about six years ago, she passed out on top of the newborn and found it dead when she woke up. Those disclosures led to her initial arrest last Saturday.

On Thursday police found yet another set of infant remains, bringing the total to four and leading to the most recent set of charges, Pennsylvania State Police said.

Mauthe was also raising two boys, ages 6 and 8, while her husband, Jacob Mauthe, serves a prison sentence after pleading guilty last year to DUI and endangering the welfare of children, TribLive reported. The kids are now with extended family.

Investigators said they still must comb through Mauthe’s medical records and interview her friends, colleagues and husband to try and learn how she came to have at least four children with no medical care and without reporting either the births or the deaths. Mauthe is due back in court this week.

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