Warning: The details below are graphic and may disturb some readers.
WINNIPEG — After years of delays, the verdict is in. Andrea Giebrecht, 42, has been found guilty of six counts of concealing infant remains.
Provincial court Judge Murray Thompson handed down Giebrecht’s verdict Monday afternoon. Giebrecht faces up to 12 years in prison as each charge carries a maximum sentence of two years.
Giesbrecht was arrested Oct. 20, 2014, when six dead infants were found wrapped in towels and stored inside plastic containers in a U-Haul storage locker she had been renting.
She had pleaded not guilty to to six counts of concealing infant remains and had been free on bail since she was arrested in 2014.
RELATED: ‘She was trying to conceal these remains’: Closing arguments in Andrea Giesbrecht case
WATCH: Andrea Giesbrecht, the woman accused of concealing the remains of six babies in a storage locker, was found guilty in a Winnipeg court room Monday afternoon Giesbrecht, 42, was arrested Oct. 20, 2014
Before Judge Thompson read out Giesbrecht’s verdict Monday, he went over the chargers and pieces of the trial that took place in April, 2016. The trial lasted five months.
“The only logical and rational conclusion to be drawn from this evidence is that Giesbrecht would have been aware that each child was likely to be born alive,” Judge Thompson said while reading out Giesbrecht’s verdict Monday.
“In conclusion the evidence at trial established that Andrea Giesbrecht was the mother of and delivered six near of full-term children,”
READ MORE: Some infant remains found in Winnipeg storage locker were full term: pathologist
Murray said the evidence from the trial “leaves no doubt” Giesbrecht concealed her pregnancies and the delivery of the six babies. He also said the evidence established the six infants “were at a gestational age of development where they were likely to be born alive.”
“I am satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt the Crown proved essential elements of each of the offences. I find the accused guilty on all six counts,” he said.
Her sentencing date has yet to be announced.
WATCH: Judge Murray Thompson hands out verdict
Infant remains found
On Oct. 20, 2014 the infant remains were discovered at a U-Haul on McPhillips by employees after fees went unpaid on the locker.
Police notes indicate officers found some bodies wrapped in garbage bags put in various bags and plastic containers. One body was wrapped in towel, as well as a garbage bag, and stored in a pail.
“We opened up a pail that was full of some soap. It was full… Seems something was in there,” Ryan Pearson, a 19-year employee with the company said during the trial. “Kinda thought something was not right.”
WATCH: Infants’ bodies found in storage locker
Pearson said there was an “indescribable” but “weird” smell that came from one of the pails when it was opened.
“We got some gloves because it didn’t seem right,” he said. “Everything was sticky feeling.”
READ MORE: Andrea Giesbrecht trial: gruesome details of the dead babies revealed
Giesbrecht was arrested soon after and charged with six counts of concealing a body.
Trial begins
After many delays, Giesbrecht’s trial started in April, 2016. The trial first heard Giesbrecht was pregnant at least six times and had several legal abortions over the years, as well as a miscarriage.
Giesbrecht’s husband, Jeremy took to the stand in September, 2016. He SAID he knew his wife had an unknown number of miscarriages and between nine and 11 abortions.
READ MORE: Husband of Andrea Giesbrecht takes the stand
Experts who examined the infant remains and reviewed the findings testified the infants were developed enough to probably have been born alive, but added it was impossible to say for sure.
Nor could they tell how the babies had died because of the advanced state of decomposition.
WATCH: The questions surrounding the Andrea Giesbrecht trial
During the trial a DNA expert testified and said there “very strong evidence” that Giesbrecht is the mother of the babies found.
DNA from the infant remains was compared to a soiled sanitary napkin taken from Giesbrecht’s home and a sample given by her husband.
RELATED: Some infant remains found in Winnipeg storage locker were full term: pathologist
Test results yielded strong evidence showing five of the babies belonged to Giesbrecht and her husband and moderately strong evidence the sixth also belonged to them.
During closing statements, her lawyer, Greg Brodsky argued Giesbrect meant to save the babies and not dispose or conceal them.
The Crown prosecutor, Debbie Buors said the infants were not being “saved”, but argued they were “carelessly packaged” and Giesbrect went to great lengths to try and conceal the remains.
READ: Full written verdict by Judge Murray Thompson
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