Why Mothers Kill Their Children

Famous Cases of Mothers Who Murder

Sep 15, 2008 Dresden Quinn Jones

The thought of a mother harming her own child is shocking and not easy to understand. Some famous cases of mothers murdering their children reveal various motives.

Crime of Passion

On October 25, 1994 in South Carolina, Susan Smith called police and said that she had been carjacked by a black male who had kidnapped her two sons. It was eventually revealed that Smith had rolled her car into a lake with 3 year old Daniel and 14 month old Alexander strapped inside in her effort to appease a boyfriend who wasn't ready for children ("White woman who claimed black man kidnapped her children charged with their murder." Jet Magazine, November 21, 1994). Susan was convicted on two counts of first degree murder and is serving life in prison.

Postpartum DepressionProbably the most infamous case of this kind is that of Andrea Yates, the Texas housewife who drown her five children on June 20, 2001. Yates told investigators that her children "could never be saved", so she had no choice but to kill them ("Yates Believed Children Doomed." Carol Christian and Lisa Teachy, The Houston Chronicle, March 6, 2002). Yates drown Luke, Paul, John, Noah and Mary in the bathtub in their home. After a jury rejected an insanity plea, Yates was sentenced to life in prison. But a judge overturned the verdict in 2005 because of strong evidence that Yates had long suffered from acute postpartum depression. Yates is currently living at the North Texas State Hospital.

Postpartum depression is experienced by a small percentage of women and can range in severity from what's known as "baby blues" to serious anxiety and panic attacks (The Boston Women's Health Book Collective: Our Bodies, Ourselves. 2005). Certainly, killing one's own children is an extremely rare outcome.

Munchausen by Proxy SyndromeThis condition is defined as a parent or caregiver (almost always a woman) who intentionally inflicts harm on a child or vulnerable adult to gain attention or some other kind of benefit. Generally, this does not result in death because it is discovered what is happening to the child before it's too late. However, Marybeth Tinning managed to kill 9 children before she was stopped. Initially, doctors blamed the first few deaths on Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. But since Tinning was always alone with her children when they died, investigators knew something was wrong. All 9 children died between 1972 and 1985. None of the children lived past the age of 2. Tinning confessed to killing three of her children in 1987 and later retraced but was nontheless found guilty. Tinning was sentenced to 20 years to life and has been denied parole twice.

Caylee AnthonyThe 3 year old Florida girl has been missing since mid-June 2008. Her mother, Casey, is the prime suspect at this time. Evidence found in Casey's car suggests that Caylee is no longer alive but investigators and the public continue to hope she is. By her own admission, Casey Anthony has told repeated lies to authorities and didn't report her child missing for a month. Was it a crime of passion? Postpartum depression? Casey Anthony's friends and family have all agreed that she is a Habitual liar ("Orlando Toddler Caylee Anthony's Mom Leaves Jail with Lawyer and Ankle Monitor." FOXNews.com, August 21, 2008); does she perhaps suffer from a mental impairment that caused her to harm her child? As investigators and family search for the missing girl, the public watches and prays that another mother has not killed her child.

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