A case involving an Eastern Cape woman facing murder and birth concealment charges was yesterday transferred to the Mthatha High Court.
Melice Jacobs, 30, who was arrested in February in connection with the discovery of four frozen babies, a foetus and three placentas, appeared briefly in the Mthatha Magistrate’s Court yesterday.
The bodies were discovered in two separate freezers in her New Brighton, Mthatha, home.
The house is owned by her mother, but Jacobs had lived there for many years with her now late boyfriend.
The court yesterday postponed the case to October 15 to give the investigating officer three months to wrap up the investigations before the matter can be heard by the Mthatha High Court.
Jacobs, who is out on R5000 bail, appeared in court in the company of two women who said they were her aunts.
A groomed Jacobs appeared in good spirits, chatting with a few members of the public gallery and joking with journalists.
As part of the bail conditions she has moved in with family in Southernwood.
The court had in previous appearances been told the bodies were those of full-term babies. Three of the four were girls, one a boy and the foetus was that of a girl. One of the bodies was said to have a shoelace around its neck.
In an earlier appearance, Jacobs told the court the babies were hers. She had kept the bodies for up to five years, she said, after having miscarriages from beatings by her longtime boyfriend, who is now dead.
She said she would plead not guilty.
Her evidence suggested she conceived seven times over 10 years. Three of her children – aged five, seven and 10 – are alive. She claimed to have had miscarriages in 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012.
Postmortems revealed two of the babies were 35 to 36 weeks old, another was 21 weeks old and another 32 weeks old. One died from strangulation, two from hypothermia and another was an abortion. — lulamilef@dispatch.co.za
Frozen babies’ mom appears
Melice Jacobs, 30, who was arrested in February in connection with the discovery of four frozen babies, a foetus and three placentas, appeared briefly in the Mthatha Magistrate’s Court yesterday.
The bodies were discovered in two separate freezers in her New Brighton, Mthatha, home.
The house is owned by her mother, but Jacobs had lived there for many years with her now late boyfriend.
The court yesterday postponed the case to October 15 to give the investigating officer three months to wrap up the investigations before the matter can be heard by the Mthatha High Court.
Jacobs, who is out on R5000 bail, appeared in court in the company of two women who said they were her aunts.
A groomed Jacobs appeared in good spirits, chatting with a few members of the public gallery and joking with journalists.
As part of the bail conditions she has moved in with family in Southernwood.
The court had in previous appearances been told the bodies were those of full-term babies. Three of the four were girls, one a boy and the foetus was that of a girl. One of the bodies was said to have a shoelace around its neck.
In an earlier appearance, Jacobs told the court the babies were hers. She had kept the bodies for up to five years, she said, after having miscarriages from beatings by her longtime boyfriend, who is now dead.
She said she would plead not guilty.
Her evidence suggested she conceived seven times over 10 years. Three of her children – aged five, seven and 10 – are alive. She claimed to have had miscarriages in 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012.
Postmortems revealed two of the babies were 35 to 36 weeks old, another was 21 weeks old and another 32 weeks old. One died from strangulation, two from hypothermia and another was an abortion. — lulamilef@dispatch.co.za
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