Now part of the Darkcast Network. Welcome to Indie Podcasts with a Dark side. On Saturday, November 26, 2022, just before 8pm Gwent Police officers arrived at an end of Terrace home on Maize e Felon in Wild Mill Bridge end, Wales. The visit was part of a fraud investigation into the possible miss selling of clothes meant for charity. But when officers stepped inside, they noticed a foul smell that drifted from upstairs, growing stronger as they climbed higher. One officer compared the odor to fish food. The odor brought them to the attic, and when the attic hatch was pulled open, the smell got worse. The officers described the strengthening smell as resembling, quote, rotting flesh. Police found a large bundle of bed sheets containing a, quote, dense object. When the officers carefully inspected, they found that this bundle had multiple layers and it looked like it was concealing something. It was a tightly tied trash bag that had another trash bag inside, and inside of that was a third trash bag. By the time they reached the third trash bag inside they found an orange bag containing a, uh, duvet cover. The duvet cover had brown stains on it and the officer instantly realized within the towels were the remains of a human baby lying on their right side and their right hand had begun to decompose. Crime scene investigators were immediately called and during a further search, another shocking discovery was made. The body of a second baby concealed in an airing cupboard. Welcome, lambs. Welcome to Love and Heartbreak, um, to Homicide, your weekly true crime podcast that tells you stories of relationships that have turned deadly. I’m Kai and I bring you these cases with the victim in mind. So along the way, you might hear a little bit of ranting and a little bit of raving. So look out for that. If you like what we do here, then don’t forget to hit, follow or subscribe on whatever platform you’re listening from. And if you want even more bonus episodes, case extras ad free, listen in and the brand new deadly duo series. Head over to our patreon patreon.com loveandmurder. You can even sign up for free and you still get some perks if you do. But when you join one of our bonus tiers, you’re also becoming the voice of the victims and helping keep this show going. Patreon.com loveandmurder now, without further ado, grab your butts, grab your delicious glass of apple juice, and let’s get back to this case of love and murder. Neighbors watched as police quarantined the house, sealed off the communal back garden, and erected a forensic tent that stayed in place for days. One neighbor, 25 year old Maria Jones remembered seeing, quote, about 10 vehicles together, including forensic investigation vans. Another said, quote, they had a baby in there, but I didn’t know there were two babies. It’s devastating. Police immediately arrested 29 year old mother of five, Egle Žilinskaitė. Now, I don’t know if her name is said correctly. I had to search everywhere just for the pronunciation of the first name at least because it’s a Lithuanian name. So I’m not sure, I wasn’t sure how to say it and I wasn’t sure how to say the last name. Um, I did find the first name, couldn’t find the last name in pronunciation. So you can look on, on the title of the episode or you can even look in the show notes so you can see how it’s spelled. And if you want to correct me on the pronunciation of the last name, thank you very much. Uh, but please don’t be offended that I pronounced it that way because I’m not sure how to pronounce it. So the arrested Egle and they arrested 47 year old van driver Žilvinas Ledovskis. Again, I’m not sure how to pronounce his name. And they arrested another 37 year old man. The Lithuanian couple had been in the Wild Mill property for about a year before the discovery. Neighbors said they seemed friendly, but communication was limited because of language barriers. One neighbor remembered that baby toys had been delivered in the weeks before the bodies were found. Another neighbor said she had, quote, never known the woman to be pregnant and remembered that Egle always wore very baggy clothes now while they were living in the house. What they didn’t know was that investigators had been steadily building a case against them dealing with charity fraud. A pathologist was brought to the scene to examine the infants referred to as Baby A and Baby B. Both were determined to be, quote, severely decomposed male infants who had reached full term. The remains were transported to the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff for post mortem examinations to determine more details about these concealed births. Medical examinations later confirmed that the two babies were both the biological children of Egle and Zilvanus. They were both full siblings, but not twins, which, you know what that means. They were born at different times. Severe decomposition made it impossible to determine an exact cause of death, but experts concluded it was not unreasonable to believe that they were stillborn based on the presence of the placental membranes and the umbilical cord found with the remains. When investigators were able to figure out at Another address, Egle gave birth to baby A, who was stillborn. After delivering this child alone, Egle carefully wrapped and concealed the remains instead of seeking medical assistance or reporting the birth. When she later moved to the Bridgend House in July 2021, she brought baby’s aide’s remains with her. Then, in September 2021, while six months pregnant, she gave birth to baby B at the Bridgend Home. This second birth also happened without any medical supervision or notification to authorities, and he was stillborn as well. Then she hid this body within the house. After a, uh, thorough investigation by the South Wales Police, court appearances started on February 20, 2024. Both Zilvanus and Egla appeared at Cardiff Magistrates Court during this hearing. They were charged with two counts of concealing the birth of a child and two counts, uh, of preventing the lawful and decent burial of a body. The they were then released on a conditional bail, which included surrendering their passports and being ordered not to contact each other. Now, I want to pause here. When do you think they made it law that you have to tell that you had a child? I understand why, because people could be having children willy nilly and abusing them and doing whatever they want, but I’m pretty sure there was a time when it wasn’t the law to report when you had to, to report when you gave birth to a child. You know what I’m saying? And actually, for some reason before this case, I never thought about it, but I wonder when they actually made that a law. And this is Wales, so that’d be different countries like I would look up for the US when they made that a law. But just on a whole, I wonder when that was made a law. Anyway, random thought back to the case then. On April 10, 2024, both of them appeared at Cardiff Crown Court. Egle pled guilty to all four charges. A, uh, guilty plea meant that there was no need for a trial as the defendant admitted to the charges. Her case was then adjourned for sentencing. Zilvanis pled not guilty to the same four charges. A, uh, not guilty plea typically leads to a trial where the prosecution must present evidence to prove the defendant’s guilt. His trial was scheduled for November 25, 2024. However, on May 2025, after the Crown prosecution had reviewed the evidence, they decided not to proceed with his trial. With that, Judge Tracy Lloyd Clark formally acquitted him of all charges. And that was it for him. On July 10, 2025, Egle appeared at Cardiff Crown Court by herself for her sentence. In hearing. During this hearing, the court was able to hear the entire story. Egle’s defense said that she had a fundamental distrust of authorities based in experiences in Lithuania and in the UK she also had a troubling behavioral pattern with having, quote, a history of denying that she was pregnant. When challenged by health workers, she feared that if officials knew that she was pregnant, her children would have been taken away. The court heard. The charge of preventing the lawful and decent burial of a body typically addressed several types of harm, quote, the indignity and degradation caused to the deceased, the misery caused to the deceased’s family and friends, and the impact and ability to have a decent funeral and burial. Also, such concealment, quote, may prevent an appropriate and timely investigation into the circumstances and cause of death. Her defense lawyer, Matthew Roberts, explained that Egla was suffering from depression and feared being blamed for the stillbirth. She also had a difficult relationship with an alcoholic and emotionally abusive partner. The defense emphasized that she was, uh, lonely and emotionally vulnerable with her mental state severely compromised. Quote, her emotions were all over the place. She didn’t know what to do. The lack of support from her partner bred a household environment where Egle felt unable to safely disclose her pregnancies or seek appropriate medical care. So basically, with all that being said, what they really said was she mistrusted the person that she was living with and she mistrusted the government. So this was her state of mind when the baby was stillborn. And remember, there’s such a thing as postpartum depression. Um, um, postpartum psychosis, your hormones are going wacky because, like, soon as you have your baby, your hormones completely change. A lot of people don’t understand this. You know, men are never going to get this, and even women who’ve never had babies are going to get this. And some people, you know, they do go through the hormone change, but it’s not as severe, so they’re not going to understand it either. Or they might understand it a little bit, but you just have to think about the hormones are going wacky. So sometimes women who just had a baby are not thinking clearly, and she has all of this going on. And as I’ve heard it, some people who do have, like, either stillborn births or miscarriages, they do blame themselves, you know, so she had that also, and she didn’t have any kind of support to turn to, to even talk about these emotions. Then on top of all of that, you know, she was worried that if they knew that she had these two babies and in her thought process again. She thought they would take away her children, you know, so I guess if you break it all down like that, I kind of understand when, where she was coming from. It’s not like she murdered her children. They were stillborn. The court was also told that a funeral for the babies took place in May 2025, when which provided extended family with some closure. Judge Lloyd Clark described Egla’s approach as, quote, a deliberate decision not to seek assistance, saying that Egle had lived in fear of losing her family. And like I said, the judge is saying this now. She was afraid that the government could and would remove her children if necessary. Quote, I, uh, have taken your mental health at the time into account. Applying the sentencing guidelines on sentencing offenders with mental disorders. The court recognized that while not excusing her actions, Egle’s mental health issues represented a mitigating factor that influenced her behavior. Both court and the prosecution acknowledged that the deaths themselves were not her fault. The babies were likely stillborn. What brought her to trial, as the judge said, was her decision to hide them. Wrapping the bodies in blankets and bags and concealing them in the attic and in the cupboard and never telling anybody about their existence. That’s why she was in court this day. Judge Lloyd Clark sentenced her to two years in prison, suspended for two years, along with 200 hours of unpaid work and a 15 day rehabilitation order. She was 31 years old by this time. So basically she said, you’re sentenced to two years in prison, but you’re also not sentenced to two years in prison. But then she had the 200 hours of community service. I guess in Wales they call it unpaid work. In the US we call it community service. And then she had a 15 day rehabilitation order. The judge told her, quote, while you have committed serious offenses, the deaths of your children were not your fault and you have suffered the loss of two children at birth, and you are not a risk or a danger to the public. Obviously, you have no history of poor compliance with court orders as you are of previous good character. The judge also said that there was a, uh, realistic prospect of rehabilitation and strong personal mitigation. Judge Lloyd Clark made it clear that failure to comply with these requirements would result in Egla being, quote, returned to court when sentence will be activated on unless unjust to do so. Side note, it was revealed that as soon as the bodies of the infants were found, Zilvanus broke up with Egla. I see where he’s coming from. You know what I’m saying? He got in trouble for something he didn’t do. It did turn out that, uh, authorities believed that he had no knowledge of this and he didn’t help with the COVID up. I see where he’s coming from. Um, I wouldn’t ask him to think rationally because he’s alcoholic and abusive, but I would say if he were not those two things and he were a rational young man, I would tell him to maybe try and put yourself in her shoes and don’t be so harsh to her. She wasn’t thinking in her right mind. So maybe that’s not a reason to really break up your family. But if you’re an abusive prick, then already you don’t care about anybody but yourself. So now I wanted to do this case because it shows sometimes the desperate lengths that people will go through when they’re faced with fear, isolation, and then on top of that a, um, mistrust of the system and at the same time don’t have emotional support at home. So, you know, at first when I read the headline, I was kind of shocked because the headlines in the articles that I read, it was basically like, woman hid dead babies for years. Uh, gets acquitted of jail time. And I was like, what? So, you know, the headlines made me think something else. And then when I read it, I kind of understood what was going on. And I guess in my, when I put out my episode and the headline, it’s going to kind of be the same because you can’t literally say the entire case in the headline. There’s no way to, you know, take 250 words or how many ever words it is a short headline and put the entire case in there. So I can’t really blame the publications. That’s what I went in reading about this case with that thought process, like, I can’t believe she got away with it. But then as I went deeper into the case, I realized what it actually was. A woman who had no emotional support, who was frightened, had two stillborn births, was afraid of losing her other children. Now when they said mother of five, I don’t know if they included the two stillborn births and she had three live children or if she had five live children, I’m not sure. Um, but either way, she was afraid that if this came out, they would blame her for having a stillbirth and take her children away. You know what I’m saying? So it gave me more compassion. When I read further into this case and doing five years of love and murder, I could kind of understand where the fear of the system can come from because there’s cases where people don’t need to be in the system and they put them in the system. There’s cases where people do need to be in the system or need help from the system and the system is ignoring them. So I can, you know, I can understand. So let me know. What do you think about this case? Do you think I’m being way too understanding now? I did want to say this. Even though I can understand the fear of the system and everything that happened, I also understand that she wasn’t in her right mind. But if she was in her right mind, the thing that I wouldn’t be able to condone is not burying the babies. That’s something that, that has to be done. You know, I have other reasons for that, but the one that I’m going to share is the fact of just how unsanitary that is, especially if she had other kids around. So I went looking up, um, how unsanitary it is to have just like a dead body lying around. And what I found was actually interesting. According to funeral.org, there was a frequently asked questions section. And one of the questions were, aren’t dead bodies full of dangerous bacteria that can make the living sick? And the answer that Funeral.org had was, no, not usually. It’s important to know the difference between disease causing microorganisms and, and the normal, if unpleasant, microorganisms that produce natural decay. To put it plainly, decomposition is a smell problem, not a health problem. And then they continued on saying, here’s a paragraph. The Journal of Perspectives in Health, published by the Pan American Health Organization that sums it up. Well, these microorganisms that are involved in decomposition are not the kind that cause disease. And most viruses and bacteria that do cause disease cannot survive more than a few hours in a dead body. An apparent exception is the human immunodeficiency virus, HIV, which has been shown to live up to 16 days in a corpse under refrigeration. Wow. Uh, so that’s what I read in funerals.org and I was like, really? Wow. I thought, you know, being that it was decomposing and everything like that it would be a health hazard. But although there may not be transmittable bacteria and corpses during decay, there is leakage, gas, and of course, like they said, the smell, all this around other children living in the house. So she should have found a way if she was in her right mind. I’m not saying her, I’m just saying people in general. I’m not judging her because I believe she wasn’t in her right mind. You know, I don’t know. I, I think, let me say, I think she wasn’t in her right mind. So you can’t really do rational stuff if you’re not a rational person. And I’m not saying that in a derogatory way. I’m saying that in a factual way. So what I was saying was a person in general, you know, this is all this is around other children, other people living in the house, they should find a way to have at least buried the bodies. And again, I’m trying to say this in general because I’m not saying her. So what do you think about this case? Do you agree that she wasn’t in her right mind? Uh, do you think she should have gone to prison under the Wales law? Or do you think this was handled with the care that, you know, it should have been handled with based on her mental state and everything going on with her? I want to hear from you, so let me know your comments below. And that is all I have for you today. Remember that this podcast is listener funded. Episodes like this one are sponsored by My LaMs on Patreon and you can join for [email protected] loveandmurder but, uh, for the real extras, the bonuses, the case files, you can get the entire trial. For some of these cases that I have, I’ll have the entire video trial in there. Not for this case, uh, but for some of the cases you get the episode drops for free. You get a.d. free Intro free and outro free. Listen in and you become a voice of the victim and help love and murder continue going forward. You can get all of this by joining the bonus tiers, starting at only $3 a month. With the bonus tiers, you’re not just supporting the show, you’re helping give the victims a voice. Patreon.com loveandmurder thank you for listening all the way to the end. Thank you for your support. And as I end each full episode, I want to remind you that it’s all love and no murder, y’. All. See you in the next episode. Bye, Sam M.