Veronica

A New York mom is accused of killing her daughter by feeding the little girl peanut M&Ms -- which she was severely allergic to, cops said.

Veronica Cirella, 31, of Plainview, pleaded not guilty Wednesday to second-degree murder in the death of her 8-year-old daughter Julie, who was found dead in her home on July 23 last year, CBS reported. The little girl, who had cerebral palsy, was found just hours before she was to be a flower girl in a cousin's wedding.

Cops found Cirella lying on the floor near her daughter's body. She had allegedly tried to kill herself with a cocktail of insulin injections and painkillers, and then attempted to strangle herself with an electrical cord.  She left a suicide note detailing the events leading up to her daughter's death.

"I had to give her a better life, which was to give her back to heaven," Cirella allegedly wrote. "She does not deserve to be in pain whatsoever. I don't mind going to hell because I took my life to give her a better life, which is in heaven where she can be free."

Cirella gave the girl the M&Ms as a treat for agreeing to participate in the wedding. Cops said that she knew her daughter was allergic to peanuts, and claims that she gave the girl a dose of Benadryl in order to counteract any allergic reactions before Cirella went to sleep.  Cirella faces a life sentence for the alleged murder.

Jacqueline Stout

Jacqueline Stout of Canton, Ohio didn’t want to die alone when she killed herself, so she drugged her two children, possibly with Kool-Aid laced with prescription pills, authorities say.  Stout and the children survived, and police have charged the 24-year-old mother with two counts of attempted murder and two counts of child endangering.

Stout sent her husband a text message stating that she was suicidal and had just tried to kill his children. He didn’t get the message right away, and Stout followed with a phone call a minute later stating that she had given the children a lot of medication.

Adam Stout drove to his wife’s home and called 911. The children were sleeping and Jacqueline Stout was on a couch with a knife in her hand and had been cutting her arm, the filing said. All three were lethargic.

The 6-year-old boy said his mother had given him “more than four” pills that were “red, green and blue,” and had crushed the pills and put them into his Kool-Aid, according to the court filing.  The 4-year-old girl also reported drinking Kool-Aid given by her mother.

Jacqueline Stout told investigators that she got into an argument with her husband, who told her "that he was leaving and she shouldn’t ever call him again."

Stout said she wanted to kill the children so that they could ‘go with her’ when she died.

The main concerns wereAdam Stout’s “severe mental health issues,” his attempt to kill himself with prescription medication in 2009 and concerns about violence in the home. The agency placed the children with relatives, but returned them to Jacqueline Stout in May on the condition that the family remain under the protective supervision of Job and Family Services. Adam Stout was no longer living in the home.

A  psychological evaluation revealed no concerns about Jacqueline Stout’s mental health, and didn’t indicate that she was having thoughts of suicide.

http://www.cantonrep.com/x898075904/Mom-who-drugged-kids-avoids-prison

Darlie Routier

Convicted of the murder of her 5 year old son Damon inside the suburban family's home.  Damon and his 6 year old brother Devon were stabbed to death while they slept with their mother in the down stairs family room of their Rowlett home.  Routier's husband Darin, and infnt son Drake, slept through the attack in the upstairs bedrooms and were not harmed.  Routier who also suffered stab wounds that police claimed were self-inflicted, testified that she too slept through the attack on her and her children and awoke only to see the back of the man fleeing the residence.  Prosecution argued Routier killed her children because the children interfered with the lifestyle she wanted to live.  She was arrested and charged with the murders after making inconsistent statements to the police.

http://murderpedia.org/female.Q/index.Q.htm

Otty

A San Antonio woman who told authorities the devil made her mutilate and dismember her newborn was found not guilty by reason of insanity Thursday, in a deal that sends her to a state mental institution rather than to face a trial and possible prison sentence.

Scott Wesley Buchholz-Sanchez was three weeks old when authorities who received a frantic 911 call from the boy's aunt arrived to find his mutilated body, and Sanchez wailing the devil made her do it. On the call, Sanchez can be heard screaming, "I didn't mean to do it! He told me to!"

Sanchez was charged with capital murder and was found competent to stand trial. But  after three examinations by separate doctors it was determined she was legally insane when she killed her son, the court had no choice but to accept the plea.

Sanchez had sought treatment before killing her son and did not receive the care she needed.  

Sanchez periodically sought treatment for mental illness before her son was born and even spent a few hours in an emergency room after the birth because she was hearing voices less than a week before the attack.   Sanchez had been prescribed the antidepressant citalopram after giving birth but had only taken it the day before killing her son. The drugs do not take effect for a few weeks.

An estimated 1,000 women are afflicted with postpartum psychosis. Women with the diagnosis can suffer dangerous delusions and desires to hurt their children, unlike postpartum depression, which occurs in as many as one in five new mothers.

Andrea Yates, the suburban Houston mother who drowned her five children in a bathtub in 2001, and Dena Schlosser, who cut off her baby's arms in 2004 both suffered from the psychosis.

Yates was sentenced to life in prison before her case was overturned on appeal, after which she was found not guilty by reason of insanity in 2006 and sent to a state hospital.

http://murderpedia.org/female.S/s/sanchez-otty.htm

952 Mallett

This painting is for a new series, Pretty Ugly, where I am revisiting some of my earlier work from the series titled Sugar Coated Memories.

This series deals with my childhood memories.  This painting, 952 Mallett, is about the house I grew up in, and the monsters from that house that never release you. The girl represents me as a child. I am resting my arm on the monster to show acceptance of the monster that is always with you, wherever you go. The empty room behind me is the future.

This painting was created for the invitational show, What Big Eyes You Have. I am so honored to show with such an amazing group of artist. Thank you Sarah and Michael Banks, for inviting me to participate in this show!

Terrie

A Mississippi mom has been charged with murder in the death of her son after police said they found the 3-year-old's burned body in an oven.

The police that found Tristan Robinson's body inside the electric oven at his mother's apartment said the child's body was still warm when it was removed from the oven.
Terrie Robinson, 24, was charged with murder.

http://www.truecrimereport.com/2011/03/terrie_robinson_charged_with_k.php

Diane

Even though the sun had long set over the verdant hills of Springfield, Oregon, Thursday, May 19, 1983, remained as warm at night as it had at noon. There was a quiet to the evening, the kind of languishing stillness that sometimes thresholds a storm. But, the night staff at McKenzie-Willamette Hospital felt no oncoming torrent, and, after so-many years fighting unpredictable emergencies they often found themselves with an innate power to feel something sinister in the air. And, the professionals they were, they were always ready.

Nothing had pre-armed them, however, for the drama that unfolded at their literal doorstep at approximately 10:48 p.m. No warning had come until the red late-model Nissan bearing Arizona license plates careened into the emergency drop-off, bleating its horn to scare the devils from hell. The skeleton night shift all heard it; their faces told them immediately that what they had anticipated a quiet night in ER was not to be.

In the driveway, just beyond the double automatic doors of ER, a blonde woman in her twenties waved them on; she looked ashen in the fluorescent tube lighting, and she wildly pointed to the interior of her car.

"Somebody just shot my kids!" was all she seemed to know how to say.

http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/notorious_murders/famous/downs/index_1.html

Blanca

​Twenty-one-year-old Blanca Montano carted her two young children into University Medical Center in Tucson in late February claiming they were both ill with flu-like symptoms. Her toddler son and infant girl were both treated for infections, and the boy recovered quickly...

But the seven-month-old daughter's condition only grew worse. The little girl would eventually be diagnosed with nine separate rare infections during the course of her hospitalization.

Initially, the medical staff was miffed, unable to ascertain why the child only got sicker and sicker. Their collective perplexity soon turned to suspicion, though, once it was realized that the baby's condition only worsened after visits from her mother.

They began to suspect they were dealing with a case of Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy -- where a parent inflicts harm on a child in an effort to gain attention for themselves.

http://www.truecrimereport.com/2011/04/mother_blanca_montano_repeated.php 

Alysha

Neighbors said a 7-year-old pulled from a burning house Saturday with her two younger sisters screamed, "Why mommy? Why mommy? Why did you do this to me?"

Alysha Green, 29, accused of coaxing her children into a closet and burning them, had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder but stopped taking her medication.

Three-year-old Ariania Green died Tuesday after being removed from life support. About 90 percent of the girl's body was burned, according to court documents.

The older girls -- Alexandria, 5, with burns covering about 40 percent of her body, and Adamiria, 7, with burns covering nearly 20 percent of her body.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-09-19-3592033131_x.htm

Maria

I Love You To Death

The title of my current series is I Love You To Death.  The soft colors are meant to draw the viewer in for a closer look, revealing the message of cute and cuddly, but deadly.  

I use the child as a metaphor to represent real life mothers that have killed their children in factual criminal cases.

According to the American Anthropological Association, more than 200 women kill their children in the United States.

My painful memories of growing up with a bipolar mother compels me to bring light to the subject matter of filicide.  

Susan

At around 8 p.m. Susan put her barefooted sons in the car, strapped them in their car seats and began driving around. In her confession she stated that she wanted to die and was headed to her mother's house, but decided against it. Instead she drove to John D. Long Lake and drove onto a ramp, got out of the car, put the car in drive, released the brake and watched as her car, with her children sleeping in the back seat, plunged into the lake. The car drifted out a ways then slowly sank.

Susan Smith ran to a nearby home and hysterically knocked on the door. She told the homeowners, Shirley and Rick McCloud, that an black man had taken her car and her two boys. She described how she had stopped at a red light at Monarch Mills, when a man with a gun jumped into her car and told her to drive. She drove around some, and then he told her to stop and get out of the car. At that point he told her he wouldn't hurt the kids and then drove off with the boys who she could hear were crying out for her.  For nine days Susan Smith stuck the story of being abducted. 

http://crime.about.com/od/murder/a/susan_smith.htm

Gilberta

Gilberta Estrada, 25, and three of her girls were found dead. The youngest, 8-month-old Evelyn Frayre, was alive but in dire need of medical care.

After hanging her daughters with pieces of clothing tied around a wooden board that served as a clothes rod, Estrada looped the noose around her neck, leaned into it and buckled her knees to kill herself.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/05/30/national/main2866104.shtml

Deanna

When Aaron presented Laney with a rock that day, she later reported that she believed she was supposed to pay attention. This was a symbol.  Again she told God no, but again she felt pressured to comply.  She decided that rocks would be preferable to strangulation, so she found some in preparation.

Laney knew she had to step out in faith.  Lifting the rock, she hit Aaron hard on the skull. He began to cry, alerting her husband, Keith. He asked what was wrong and Laney kept her back to him to prevent him from seeing what she was doing. She assured Keith that everything was okay. But it wasnt okay. Aaron was still breathing, so she put a pillow over his face until she heard him gurgle. She silently told God that He would have to finish the job.

Next Laney went after her other two sons. She took Luke, 6, outside first in his underwear and smashed his skull by hitting him repeatedly with a large rock. Then she dragged him by the feet into the shadows so that Joshua, 8, would not see him. She left the stone, the size of a dinner plate, lying on top of him.

Joshua was next and Laney repeated to him what she had done with Luke, placing them together in a dark area of the yard.

http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/notorious_murders/women/women_killers2/9.html

Angela

Camacho testified that on the day of the murders, March 11, 2003, Rubio told her that 2-month-old Mary Jane was “possessed” and ordered Camacho to go into the bathroom of their Brownsville apartment.

“He said they were possessed,” she said. “I believed him.”

Camacho said she came out when Rubio called her and ordered her to hold down the thrashing legs of Julissa, 3, while he severed her head.

“The (girl’s) body was on the carpet. … The head was on the carpet,” Camacho said. “I started crying and crying. … He was trying to cut (off) her head.”

Camacho testified that after the girls were killed, she cleaned the knives with pieces of clothing while Rubio washed the bodies and placed them in trash bags.

http://sergiochapa.com/files/911DeathRowFullNotes.pdf

Dena

Monday, authorities discovered a grisly scene at the family’s apartment after the child’s father called a day-care center, and asked them to check on his wife and daughter.

Day-care workers called 911 after talking to the mother; an operator then called Schlosser.

Asked if there was an emergency, Schlosser calmly responded “Yes,” according to 911 tapes released by police.

“Exactly what happened?” the 911 operator asked.
“I cut her arms off,” Schlosser replied, as the hymn “He Touched Me” played in the background.

http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/notorious_murders/women/women_killers2/9.html

Andrea

ANDREA

She had gotten out of bed around 8:10 and had waited for her husband, Rusty, to leave for work at nine. The children were all awake and eating cereal. Andrea had some, too. Once Rusty was gone, Andrea went into the bathroom to turn on the water and fill the tub. The water came within three inches from the top.

Then one by one, she drowned three of her sons, Luke, age 2; Paul, age 3; and John, age 5. She put them in facedown and held them as they struggled. As each one died, she then placed him face up on a bed, still wet, and then covered all three with a sheet. Each had struggled just a few minutes. Next was six-month-old Mary, the youngest, who had been in the bathroom all this time, sitting on the floor in her bassinet and crying. When Andrea was finished with Mary, she left her floating in the water and called to her oldest son, Noah.

He came right away. "What happened to Mary?" he asked. Then apparently realizing what his mother was doing, he ran from the bathroom but Andrea chased him down and dragged him back to the tub. She forced him in face down and drowned him right next to Mary. She admitted in her confession that he had put up the biggest struggle of all. At times he managed to slip from her grasp and get some air, but she always managed to push him back down. His last words were, "I'm sorry." She left him there floating in a tub full of feces, urine and vomit, where police found him. She lifted Mary out and placed her on the bed with her other brothers. Andrea gently covered her before calling the police and her husband. It was time.

http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/notorious_murders/women/andrea_yates/index.html

l

Dee

Two of the three children killed in their Hudson Oaks home were probably awake when they were shot, and the shooting death of their mother was a suicide.

The deaths of Sergio Perez, 10; Diego Perez, 9; and Bianca Perez, 4, were homicides. He also ruled that Dee Etta Perez, 39, died from a single gunshot wound to the left temple and she had "large quantities" of gunpowder on her hands.

Dee Perez killed the children Tuesday morning, critically wounded her husband when he arrived for a scheduled visit then killed herself.

Her estranged husband, Manuel "Manny" Perez, 38, a captain with the Fort Worth Fire Department, remained hospitalized with a gunshot wound to his back.

http://www.texnews.com/1998/2002/texas/hud0719.html