Home of Andrea Giesbrecht, accused in dead infants case, searched

Winnipeg police are searching the home of Andrea Giesbrecht, the woman accused of concealing the remains of six infants in a storage locker, on the same day a judge heard a dispute over who can be present during the autopsy of the remains.​

Giesbrecht, 40, is charged with six counts of concealing the body of a child, after the infant remains were found in a locker at a U-Haul facility on Oct. 20.

• Winnipeg U-Haul locker contained 6 dead babies
• Andrea Giesbrecht makes 1st court appearance
• New details emerge about accused in dead infants case

A heavy police presence was visible outside Giesbrecht's home on Blechner Drive on Wednesday.

Officers with the Winnipeg Police Service's identification unit are at the scene, and a section of Blechner Drive is blocked off from Pipeline Road to Manren Crescent.

​A Winnipeg police spokesperson confirmed that investigators were granted a search warrant for her house and garage this week, even though Giesbrecht had been arrested over a week ago.

A flatbed truck was seen towing a late-model red Ford van from the residence around midday.

Officers are expected to remain at the home at least until Thursday. The scene will be secured overnight, the spokesperson said.

Sources told CBC News that officers are looking for anything connected to the discovery of the infant remains.

"I'm scared," Maria Pinto, who lives nearby, told CBC News.

Pinto said her daughter attends the same school as one of Giesbrecht's two teenage sons.

She added that she would say hello to Giesbrecht whenever they saw each other, but she does not know her neighbour well.

"Seems to me she's a nice lady," Pinto said.

Courtroom debate over autopsies

Giesbrecht appeared in a Winnipeg courtroom on Wednesday morning, as lawyers were embroiled in a dispute over the autopsies of the remains.

Her lawyer, Greg Brodsky, asked to have the court appoint an independent pathologist to observe the autopsy of the remains, which would aim to determine their identity and age.

Brodsky has retained the services of retired provincial medical examiner Dr. Peter Markesteyn. Brodsky also wants the autopsies to be video-recorded.

"What I want is a pathologist that's competent to be present, with hands in pocket and Velcro on his mouth — there to observe," Brodsky told the court at the hearing.

The court heard that Manitoba's chief medical examiner, Dr. Thambirajah Balachandra, will not allow Markesteyn access to the autopsies without a court order, even though the exams are already 90 per cent complete.

The hearing has been adjourned until Friday. The autopsies are now on hold until a judge hears Brodsky's motion.

"There's still 10 per cent to go, and is that going to be the last autopsy that's going to raise the charge back again to the charge she was arrested on, murder? I don't know and I'm not going to presume," Brodsky said.

"Is it a baby? Is it a fetus? We don't know."

A criminologist told CBC News homicide charges cannot be laid against Giesbrecht if the autopsy results show the remains are of fetuses less than 20 weeks old, since a fetus cannot live outside the womb at less than 20 weeks gestation.

If the remains are determined to be over 20 weeks, the medical examiner would then have to determine if they were born alive or stillborn, and if they were siblings born to the same mother.

Wednesday's court hearing marked the first time Giesbrecht appeared in the courtroom in person. She attended a hearing last Thursday via video link from the women's jail.