Child remains found in toy boxes

One set of remains was discovered in a pink doll's box and the other in a blue toy box.

The grisly find was made by the daughter of the woman as the family cleared out her home in Audenshaw, Greater Manchester.

A post-mortem will be held on Thursday to find out how the children died and DNA tests will be conducted to discover if the children were related to the elderly woman. A paediatric forensic pathologist and an anthropologist will assist with the examination.

It is not yet known how old the children were or what sex they were, although the remains were at different stages of decomposition.

Police were called to a maisonette in Rowcon Close at 10.40pm last Thursday (May 8) by the daughter of the woman, understood to be in her 70s, who had eight known children.

A box was removed from the house which contained the further two small boxes. The small boxes, about 2ft long, were covered by towelling material and were found in the wardrobe of a bedroom, police said.

Detective Inspector Derek Weaver said: "We believe the boxes have been there for some time. The only clue we have was the presence of a newspaper, dated November 26, 1956, which was alongside one of the bodies."

He said the elderly woman may have lived at the address in Audenshaw for only a few years, with the family involved having lived at several locations across Greater Manchester in the past 30 or 40 years.

"We believe the woman who lived there died in July 2006. Her family kept the possessions on one side without ever looking at them until they recently decided to have a house clearance," Mr Weaver added.