Babysitter Charged with Murdering Fetus

An investigator testified Wednesday in the killings of an Illinois family and the coroners jury took only minutes to rule the case as homicide. Part of the tragedy involved a pregnant women being killed as well as her 7 month old fetus dying after being cut from her womb.

Tiffany Hall was the 24 year old babysitter for the Tunstall family and is now being charged with murdering the mom, three small children and the unborn baby (7 months gestation). In a gruesome way, she killed the family as part of a plot to steal the pregnant women's baby. Investigators say she had planned to take the unborn fetus for some time.

The mother, Jimella Tunstall was hit in the head repeatedly with a leg from the kitchen table. Hall then dragged her body down the hall to the bathtub where she cut the unborn baby from Tunstall's womb and left the mother to bleed to death. The baby didn't survive after the traumatic and unsafe birth, as well as being two months premature.

Tiffany Hall also drowned the other three young children in the bathtub. They were ages 7, 2 and 1. Charges haven't been pressed as a result of their death but they will be added to her sentence in the near future. Hall led investigators to their bodies after the murder.

Hall, the family's babysitter, apparently wanted a child of her own. She took the dead newborn to her own home where she called for help. She claimed she gave birth to a premature stillborn baby after being sexually assaulted. At the hospital she refused medical care and examination which led to the questioning of her story.

But the bodies weren't found by the time Hall had a funeral for the baby the next week. It was at that time that she confessed to her boyfriend that the baby wasn't hers and that she had killed the mother to take it. Her boyfriend called police and a search for the bodies began.

Hall had hid Jimella's body in a plastic tote in the basement but later dragged it out to a field and placed her in the weeds. The children were found in the washer and dryer of the home. Investigators had searched the home before after the children were reported as missing but never found them until Hall directed them to the bodies.

Tiffany Hall is in jail on a $5 million dollar bond and has pled not guilty to killing the mother and unborn baby. The deaths of the three children will be added to her case as soon as investigators have finished what they need to prevent adequate evidence against the babysitter.

Sources:

Jim Suhr. "Panel rules homicide in fetus slaying" Newsday

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