The sexton of Fejø cemetery found the body of a newborn full tern baby 28 May 1881, the body was found in a dunghill. It was estimated that the body had been there for 2-3 months as it was found to be an advanced state of decay. Speculations as to who might have given birth to the baby started right away, but yielded no results, hence the case was filed in March in 1882.
The following year, on 17 July 1883 Ane Christiansen was arrested. Various circumstances meant she was pointed out. She was an illegitimate child as was her sister Sidsel Sofie Christiansen, who had just been sentenced to 9 years' hard labour for having killed her newborn child. During interrogation Ane admitted that she had given birth to the child and immediately chocked it According to Ane she did so at her mother’s request. The mother Christiane Gotfredsen was immediately arrested and charged with complicity in murder.
Ane was sentenced to 5 years in the penitentiary, but her mother was sentenced to death, a sentence that was upheld in October in 1884. Later Christiane was pardoned by the king and was sent to the women's prison in Christianshavn, near Copenhagen.
The following year, in 1885, the case was taken up again, as gynaecologists stated that Anne had never given birth. In Supreme Court admitted both mother and daughter that they were innocent and that their confessions were false.
The mystery of who the child belonged to was never solved.
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Womens prison in Christianshavn where Christiane and her daughters was imprisoned
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