Murdered Children: Filicide, Infanticide and Neonaticide

Victims of one of one the most heinous acts known to man, they have been drowned, suffocated, beaten, burned and shot. Societies have purposefully massacred thousands for religious sacrifice, because they had physical deformities, or weren't of the favorable sex. Their lifeless bodies have been found in dumpsters, public toilets, bathtubs, and even in front of the family television. They are children, victims of filicide, infanticide, and neonaticide, murdered by those who are supposed to keep them safe, care, and provide for them, their own parents.

Filicide is defined as the killing of one's own child. Filicide can include more specific modern terms like infanticide, the killing of an infant by its parents, and neonaticide, the killing of a newborn within its first 24 hours of life. Unfortunately these are not uncommon practices, and they have been occurring with frequency throughout documented history. Arguably the earliest reference to filicide is documented in the Bible, with the near death of Isaac at the hands of his father, Abraham. (Kaye n.d.) From ancient Greek mythology, came the story of Medea, Princess of Colchis.

It is believed that Medea killed her two sons after her husband Jason left her for the King's daughter. Her story gave birth to the Medea Complex, one of the many ways to classify vengeful filicide. In the Hispanic community, many are familiar with The Legend of La Llorona, the weeping woman. According to Lallorona.com, a beautiful and chastised young woman met the man of her dreams and eventually bore children.

Soon after the births, the man left the young woman and was known to be involved with other women. Enraged, the young mother took her anger out on her children and drowned them in the river. Only after she drowned the children did she realize what she had done, and she stayed on the river bank for days before she died there, where some claim to still hear her wailing and see her searching for her lost children. Several young children have since lost their lives in the same river and the legend lives on.

Aside from tall tales and legends, some of the most horrific cases of filicide come from the continent of Asia where little girls have long been the victims of population control. In China, even as recently as the 1800s, baby girls were killed because they couldn't carry on the family name. (Kaye, n.d.) Today little girls are still left for dead because baby boys are sought after in a nation where families are only allowed to have one child. Even today, the extent of the problem is alarming: "at least 60 million females in Asia are missing and feared dead, victims of nothing more than their sex.

Worldwide, research suggests, the number of missing females may top 100 million." (Milner, 1998) According to John-Thor Dahlberg of the Los Angeles Times, "In India, In the nearly 300 poor hamlets of the Usilampatti area of Tamil Nadu [state], as many as 196 girls died under suspicious circumstances [in 1993] ... Some were fed dry, unhulled rice that punctured their windpipes, or were made to swallow poisonous powdered fertilizer. Others were smothered with a wet towel, strangled or allowed to starve to death." (as cited in Jones, 1999) This is most likely related to the practice of dowry, the foreign practice in which women must bring large amounts of money to the family she will be living with after her marriage. Also throughout history, Eskimos have killed their children because of physical abnormalities and even one of a set of twins. In the same way, Mohave Indians have killed half-breed children immediately after their birth.

Today, the United States ranks near the top on the list of countries whose inhabitants kill their own children. For infants under age one, the homicide rate in the U.S. ranks 11th in the world, while for ages one through four, it is 1st and for ages five through fourteen it is 4th. (Milner, 1998) More than 600 mothers kill their children each year, according to Los Angeles psychologist Robert R. Butterworth, Ph.D. (2001). Of all children under age 5 between 1976 and 2000, 31 percent were killed by their mothers. ("Homocide Trends", 2002) This psychiatric condition has been described as "maternal filicide" and in recent years the rate of these killings has been holding steady. Butterworth says, "there are six personality types of mothers who kill their children." ("Mothers who Kill", 2001) Mothers may be mentally ill, retaliating in jealousy, depressed, upset by their unwanted pregnancy, merciful, or battering.

Some women kill their children soon after birth, like the New Jersey "Prom Mom"; Amy Grossberg, who with her boyfriend, killed their newborn child in a Delaware motel. (Meyer, 2003) Other children die of what appears to be natural causes, many times SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome), and then are found later to be victims of homicide at the hands of their mothers, like Marybeth Tinning's nine innocent children. After being caught at then end of her 14 year massacre, in her confession Tinning said to police, "I smothered them with a pillow because I'm not a good mother." (Kelleher, 1998) Child homicides can be misdiagnosed as SIDS for various reasons. One relevant factor is that SIDS is a diagnosis of exclusion only. This means that it is not defined by a list of positive symptoms, but only by the lack of them. (Wilczynski, 1997, p.181) If an investigation isn't thorough, subtle clues could be missed. Of research done on the murders of over 200 children by their mothers, it has been found that 10 percent of those mothers have murdered more than one child. (Meyer, 2003) Juana Leija only succeeded in drowning two of her seven young children at Buffalo Bayou in Houston, Texas, before the rest were saved by two passers-by.

Susan Eubanks succeeded in shooting and killing four of her children, including her fourteen year old son, Brandon, as he sat in front of the television eating a bowl of cereal. It is presumed that she murdered them in revenge for her failing relationship with her current husband Eric Eubanks. She had planned to frame Eric for the murders, but instead shot herself in the stomach when the police arrived. One of the most popular recent cases of maternal filicide was in the small town of Union, South Carolina. Her name was Susan Smith, and she initially claimed she was carjacked by a black man, with her two young sons still inside the car. For days Susan and her husband David appeared on morning talk shows, pleading for the kidnapper to return their children home safely. Finally, inconsistencies in Susan's story lead police to investigate her further and she subsequently confessed to drowning her two boys in John D. Long Lake. She says she did so because she was going through a divorce and had been recently rejected by her new boyfriend and she wanted to commit suicide, and save her sons from any suffering after her death.

Susan went so far as to drive her vehicle to the edge of the lake, applied the emergency brake and got out, seemingly rethinking her decision. The next decision she made was the worst decision she could have made, she released the emergency brake and closed the door, letting her car slowly enter the lake and float for a few moments, before it was fully submerged, with her boys inside. She never succeeded in killing herself; instead she is serving life in prison, and may be eligible for parole in 30 years. In the more recent case of Andrea Pia Yates, almost everyone believes she was suffering from psychoses when she drowned each of her four boys in the family bathtub. Amazingly, her husband, Russell Yates, defends her and told CNN's Larry King, "She's a victim; she's not a criminal...she needs treatment, she doesn't need punishment." ("Russell Yates describes wife", 2002) Andrea Yates is also serving life in prison, and may be eligible for parole in 40 years.

Unfortunately fathers also kill their children, and at an equally alarming rate. Of all murders of children under the age of 5, fathers represent 30 percent of the killers. ("Homocide Trends", 2002) In 2001, Cuong Tran went so far as to hold the bloody body of one of his sons up to the window of his home, for his wife and neighbors to see. He had stabbed to death two of his sons, and slashing the throat of a third who survived. Tran then lifted up his own shirt and stabbed himself in the abdomen. His wife told neighbors that Tran was mad at her for going out and coming home late. Tran was killed at his home that night, by a single shot from a policeman's handgun as he tried to resist arrest. Adair Garcia's case is a unique one. He is guilty of killing his children, after he lit a barbecue grill in his living room and let it smolder through the night. Five of the six children died of smoke inhalation and carbon monoxide poisoning. Police say that he was distraught over marital problems. Theodis Cox wanted to hurt his wife in a way she'd never forget. (Moore, 2000) As his wife carried their baby and walked out of their Tampa home, he took out a gun and shot his child in the head. As it died in its mother's arms, Cox walked back into his house and killed himself. Renee Cox claimed that she was getting tired of the violence in the household and was planning to leave because Theodis was beating her. Renee's sister-in-law has said, "Oh yeah, he's great, he's wonderful. He volunteered to be a coach for my son's football team; he's perfect on the outside. Inside, he's a demon."

Punishment for murdering a child is almost always severe, but when it is a parent, the court, society, and juries tend to believe it is a mental illness or psychoses that would drive a parent to kill their own. This means that in almost all recent cases, men and women that have killed their children have received psychiatric help or life prison terms. Many sources believe that there is also an "unequal justice" when punishing one for their child's murder. As Tolson (2001) says in his Houston Chronicle article, "One woman ends up in a psychiatric facility, having being found not legally responsible for her actions. Another with a similar background who has done essentially the same thing gets 20 years in prison on a reduced charge. A third goes to the pen for life."

There have been many steps taken in recent years to combat child killing, and provide at risk parents with places to get help. Forty-two states have some sort of safe haven legislation that provides new parents with a safe place to leave their unwanted or at risk newborns with
reduced or eliminated prosecution. Sadly, many of these states have not applied the money needed to advertise these programs widely to the public. Non-profit organizations and websites such as SaveAbandonedBabies.org and BabyMoses.org provide information on how and why a person would want to abandon their baby with hospital and law enforcement personnel, without causing it any harm. While many adoption reform groups are against these types of laws and say they promote baby abandonment, the House and Senate have unanimously passed rulings in favor of them. The results have been positive, but have not and probably will not completely cure the problem. For example, in California during the first year and a half after the safe haven law there came into effect, 20 babies were abandoned safely. Unfortunately, 38 were simply discarded and 17 of those babies died.

No one knows exactly what would drive a parent to be so cold as to murder their own flesh and blood. In recent years, studies have found that many mothers who kill their children suffer from some sort of illness, depression, or psychoses. Unfortunately much of this information does not provide reasons for why fathers kill their children, but by reviewing the cases, it appears that the fathers do it for more violent and vengeful reasons than most mothers do. For example, Andrea Yates has been diagnosed with one of the rarest forms of Post Partum Depression, Post Partum Psychosis. Post Partum Depression, a severe form of the 'blues' that
appears shortly after a child's birth can be fairly normal, and treatable, affecting 10 to 20 percent of new mothers. (Kruckman, 2003) Symptoms appear as sadness, anxiety, hopelessness and even thoughts of suicide. Post Partum Psychosis on the other hand can be terrifying and damaging illness, effecting only .1 percent of new mothers. Symptoms could range from extreme confusion, to delusions, starvation, mania, and inability to stop their behavior.

Another possible cause of parent-child murder is Munchausen Syndrome and Munchausen Syndrome by proxy. Munchausen Syndrome is a psychological disorder in which a person will go to boundless lengths to convince others that they are in poor health. Far worse than this disease is it's offspring, Munchausen Syndrome by proxy. MSBP is a disorder where adults will once again feign illness, but they will do so by harming their children in such a way that they would need medical tests, surgeries, and medication. It is believed that the parent thrives on the attention, wanting to look like a victim, or even heroic in the eyes of their community for enduring so much malady and distress. It is believed that women like Marybeth Tinning and Martha Woods, who both killed several of their own children over a number of years, suffered from Munchausen Syndrome by proxy.

Shockingly, even marital and financial problems can lead a parent to murder their child. Fathers tend to murder for these reasons-like Adair Garcia or Nickolay Soltys-they kill because they feel they have lost control over their finances, their families, the relationship, or out of revenge for a perceived slight or infidelity. (Lithwick, 2002) Information has shown that many of the abandoned newborns found are traced back to prostitutes and families with low income. These types of people do not have appropriate social support and are clearly not exposed to necessary education about pregnancy and child birth, and do not believe they have access to psychologists and psychiatrists.

Although these heinous acts have been happening since the dawn of time, it is clearly necessary that our modern society must develop and actively promote more educational programs and provide free community support to help disadvantaged and at risk parents learn to take care of themselves and their children. The various state and local authorities and all doctors need to pay closer attention to potential child abuse, and be suspicious of frequent hospital visits. But how do we properly punish those responsible? How do we treat these illnesses? How do we even recognize something is wrong before it's too late? These are questions that cannot be suitably answered without further study and research. Maybe for now, people should avoid becoming parents before they are ready, or if their relationship or personality is unstable. They could be protecting themselves and their children more than they could ever know.

References

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