Court documents reveal details on infanticide case
WARNING: Some details of this story are disturbing
Court documents name the woman charged with the infanticide of two infants as Shannon Dawn Rayner, 39, of Charlottetown.
She is accused in the deaths of two babies in February of 2014 and November of 2016.
On Monday, Charlottetown police Deputy Chief Brad MacConnell said investigators believe the babies were born alive and full term, but that the two infants were deceased sometime later.
According to the charges in the court documents the babies died "within a short time" of birth.
Rayner faces six charges in all: two of infanticide, two of failing to seek assistance in child birth and two counts of disposing of the dead body of a child with the intent to conceal the fact it had been delivered.
According to court documents she is accused of putting the babies in bags before placing them "in a waste bin."
Charged on July 11
The documents show she was charged on July 11 and released on conditions, including that she refrain from having unsupervised care of any children under the age of five.
On Monday, police said the charges came after an investigation that began in March 2017 when they got a report of a woman who had been pregnant twice but didn't appear to have any young children.
They also said they have not located the remains of the infants and believe the waste the bodies were put in may have gone to the incinerator.
The maximum penalty for infanticide is five years, and the charge of disposing the remains carries a two-year maximum term.
The charges against Rayner have not yet gone to court and are all unproven at this point.
Rayner is expected to be in Charlottetown provincial court on Thursday.