After the discovery of the corpses of seven or eight newborns at a residence in the small German town of Wallenfels, police are searching for a 45-year-old woman, identified only as Andrea G, who they think may be the mother.

"We're at least searching for her as if she were the mother of the children," a police spokeswoman said.

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The infants' bodies were wrapped in towels and plastic bags and were in such an advanced state of decay. Forensic experts say it is nearly impossible to determine how long they have been dead until postmortems are conducted.

According to the Huffington Post, a local woman made the horrific discovery of a dead baby in the home on Thursday afternoon and called emergency services. When they arrived on the scene, officers found the additional bodies.

The police spokeswoman said that autopsies are currently being carried out on the remains, and the results of how they died, along with their sexes and ages, should be known by early next week, reports the Examiner.

The woman, Andrea G, and her partner, along with children they both had from prior relationships, reportedly lived in the home. According to the town's mayor, they seemed to be "very normal." She was employed at a local swimming pool, and he was an active part of the community.

Shocked neighbors from the town, which only has a population of 2,800, told reporters that though Andrea was often pregnant, she didn't attract suspicion because she seemed to be a "good and caring mother." Now many of them are second-guessing themselves as to what they could have done to have prevented this from happening.

According to the German newspaper Bild, one person in the community said the crime scene was so gruesome that "we will never divulge what we saw."

While the media waited outside the white-washed home on Friday, a Santa Claus figure could be seen by the door and children's paper ornaments in the windows.

It's reported that Andrea left at the end of September to live with a new partner but the location is not known at this point in time.

In hopes of reducing infanticide cases, some parts of Germany employ what's called "baby hatches" where mothers can hand over their newborns to authorities while maintaining complete anonymity and without any repercussions. While there are no official figures, the children's charity, Terre des Hommes, states from its own research that at least 200 newborns were killed between 2006 and 2014.

It's not clear if anyone was living on the property at the time of the discovery.

TagsGrisly discovery made, Multiple dead babies, Germany, Wallenfels, Andrea G, Infanticide, Dead newborns, Baby hatches, Baby corpses found