Charlottetown police seize new evidence in infanticide case

Charlottetown police say they're examining new evidence in an infanticide case after investigators spent nine hours searching the home of a woman charged in the deaths of two newborns.

Deputy police chief Brad MacConnell said officers were called to Shannon Dawn Rayner's home at about 2:50 p.m. Thursday. Based on the call,MacConnell saidpolice were able to obtain a search warrant.

"[The caller] believed they had found items that were relevant to the case," he said.

Rayner was charged on July 11. She faces six charges in all: two of infanticide, two of failing to seek assistance in childbirth and two counts of disposing of the dead body of a child with the intent to conceal the fact it had been delivered.

No bodies have ever been recovered, and MacConnell would not say if the evidence seized Thursday included any human remains. He said forensic investigators were involved in the search.

Police allege the babies were born alive,in February 2014 and November2016, and disposed of in a waste bin not long after they were born.

Police had been investigating since March2017, when they received a report of a woman who had been pregnant twice but didn't appear to have any young children.

Thursday was the second time they searched the same Charlottetown home.

Rayner's case is scheduled to be back in Charlottetown provincial court on Oct. 4.

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