The database
Every case here involves a woman whose depression, postpartum depression, or other documented mental illness was raised in court records, official inquiries, or published judgments. Compiled from public reporting and court records.
Showing 35 of 39 cases — clear filters
Prosecutors allege that on January 24, 2023, Clancy strangled her three children, Cora (5), Dawson (3), and Callan (8 months), at the family's Duxbury home while her husband was out on errands; she then jumped from a second-story …
On November 26, 2022, Fleming, then 22, fatally stabbed her sons Daishawn (3) and Octavius Canada (11 months) at a family shelter in the Bronx and placed them in a bathtub. She was indicted on murder charges in …
On July 27, 2021, a mother stabbed her eight-week-old son and her two-year-old daughter at their Belfast home. The baby boy died; his sister was treated for a chest wound and survived. She was convicted of murder and …
On September 16, 2021, weeks after the family emigrated from South Africa to Timaru, New Zealand, Dickason killed her three daughters, 6-year-old Liane and 2-year-old twins Maya and Karla. At trial in 2023 she pleaded not guilty, with …
Folbigg's four children — Caleb, Patrick, Sarah and Laura — died as babies or toddlers between 1989 and 1999. In 2003 she was convicted of three murders and one manslaughter and became widely known as Australia's 'worst female …
On March 16, 2025, Acorn, 40, struck her three-month-old daughter Winter Elizabeth Rose Acorn's head against the floor of her Charlottetown apartment when the baby would not stop crying. The infant suffered a fractured skull, was airlifted to …
On December 20, 2023, MacFarlane, from Barnsley, left a Christmas party at the Leeds mental health unit where she was being treated and smothered her five-month-old daughter Evelyn at Woodhouse Moor park. She telephoned her husband to tell …
On June 10, 2023, Boulder police conducting a welfare check on a woman reportedly in mental health crisis found that Englund's 2-month-old son, Miles, had been killed; she later admitted to strangling him. She was charged with first-degree …
On April 7, 2022, Yuba County sheriff's deputies found Williams's two-year-old and five-month-old children dead in the bathtub of her home in Linda, California. Williams, 26, initially pleaded not guilty to two counts of first-degree murder and two …
On December 30, 2022, Brunecz fatally stabbed her 3-month-old daughter at her Weston, West Virginia apartment and seriously injured herself; when first responders arrived she told medical staff what she had done. She was charged with murder and …
On September 12, 2022, Merdy drowned her three children, Zachary (7), Liliana (4), and Oliver (3 months), in the ocean near the Coney Island boardwalk. She was arraigned from a hospital where she was sent for psychiatric evaluation, …
Becker delivered a stillborn son at Adventist Health Hanford on September 10, 2019. Kings County District Attorney Keith Fagundes charged her with murder under Penal Code s. 187, alleging the stillbirth was caused by her methamphetamine use — …
On July 1, 2016, Gardner stabbed four of her children — aged five months to four years — to death at their apartment in southeast Memphis. Her seven-year-old escaped and ran to a neighbour for help. She waived …
In April 2016, Nikat smothered her 15-month-old daughter, Sanaya Sahib, in Melbourne and initially told police the child had been abducted before admitting responsibility. She was charged with murder, but after psychiatric evidence that she was suffering from …
In April 2015 Guode drove her four-wheel drive into a lake at Wyndham Vale in Melbourne's outer west with four of her children inside. Four-year-old twins Hanger and Madit and 17-month-old Bol died; five-year-old Alual was pulled from …
In March 2015, Watkins' 3-month-old daughter, Janiyah, was found dead in the home of the aunt who had been caring for her; Watkins, then 20, was charged with aggravated murder. Records showed she had been diagnosed with postpartum …
In March 2014, Wilkerson drove her minivan, with her three children ages 3, 9, and 10 inside, into the surf at Daytona Beach; lifeguards and bystanders rescued the children, who survived. She was charged with attempted murder and …
On May 20, 2014, Coronado killed her three daughters, ages 2 years, 16 months, and 2 months, at her home near Carson, and was found injured at the scene. At a 2015 bench trial she was convicted of …
On October 3, 2013, Carey, a 34-year-old dental hygienist from Stamford, Connecticut, drove into a White House checkpoint barrier, struck a Secret Service officer, and led police on a high-speed chase to the US Capitol, where officers shot …
In May 2013, Bolanos fatally stabbed her 5-month-old son, Isaac, in a Chicago hotel room during what she described as delusional fears that harm would come to him, and she injured herself at the scene. After an insanity …
In May 2012, Boots, a Canadian woman living in London, suffocated her two young children, a toddler son and an infant daughter, at the family's home while suffering from what psychiatrists described as severe untreated postnatal depression with …
In July 2012, Bamenga, a New York City teacher, poisoned and then drowned her two children, 4-year-old Trevor and 4-month-old Violet, in her Bronx apartment, and attempted to take her own life. She was charged with murder. After …
On August 22, 2011, Hermosillo drove to the fourth floor of the parking structure at Children's Hospital of Orange County, removed her seven-month-old son Noe Medina Jr.'s medical helmet, and dropped him over the edge; he died. She …
On the night of February 7, 2011, Thies-Keogh, 32, suffocated her eight-month-old son Colin at their Lakeview home in Chicago while in the grip of a severe postpartum illness; her husband called 911 after she told him over …
Between 2008 and 2010 Borowiec gave birth alone three times, concealing each pregnancy, and placed each newborn in a dumpster near her Calgary home. The 2010 baby survived after a passerby heard crying and the child's father unknowingly …
In July 2009, Sanchez killed her 3.5-week-old son, Scott, at her family's San Antonio home during what forensic evaluators described as a severe psychotic episode; she also gravely injured herself. She was charged with capital murder. In 2010, …
On October 27, 2008, Kehoe drove her two sons to a secluded area near a pond east of Littleton, Iowa, bound seven-year-old Sean with duct tape and cut his throat, then cut the throat of two-year-old Seth, who …
In December 2004 Montgomery strangled Bobbie Jo Stinnett, who was eight months pregnant, at her home in Skidmore, Missouri, and cut the baby from her womb; the infant survived and was returned to her father. Montgomery was convicted …
In November 2004, Schlosser fatally injured her 10-month-old daughter, Margaret, at the family's Plano home during what psychiatrists testified was a religious psychotic episode. Her first trial ended in a hung jury. At a 2006 bench trial, a …
On July 4, 2003, Gaines lifted her 14-month-old twin sons from their stroller and threw them from a bridge over the Mississippi River in St. Paul, then jumped after them in a suicide attempt. Bystanders rescued Supreme; his …
On June 20, 2001, Yates drowned her five children, ages 6 months to 7 years, in the bathtub of the family's Houston-area home and then called police. She was convicted of capital murder in 2002 and sentenced to …
Clark, a solicitor, lost two baby sons — Christopher in December 1996 and Harry in January 1998 — in circumstances that were treated as sudden infant deaths until she was arrested. In November 1999 she was convicted of …
On March 4, 1999, Lemak sedated and then suffocated her three children — Nicholas (7), Emily (6) and Thomas (3) — at the family home in Naperville, Illinois, and attempted suicide. She raised an insanity defence built on …
On September 3, 1998, Her strangled her six children at their St. Paul home, attempted suicide, and then called 911 to report what she had done. She pleaded guilty to six counts of intentional second-degree murder under a …
In September 1998 Anfinson drowned her infant son in Des Moines. She was convicted of second-degree murder in 2000 and sentenced to 50 years. Her appeals turned on whether evidence of her postpartum depression should have been placed …
In November 1997 Riggs killed her two children, five-year-old Justin and two-year-old Shelby, at their home in Sherwood, Arkansas, and attempted suicide by overdose. She confessed, refused to allow her lawyers to argue for her life at sentencing, …
Sims's daughters died three years apart — 13-day-old Loralei in 1986 and six-week-old Heather in 1989 — and in both cases she reported that masked intruders had taken the baby. She was convicted in 1990 of the first-degree …
In 1988 Thompson drowned her nine-month-old son in the bathtub in Sacramento after hearing what she believed was the voice of God telling her the child was the devil. The judge found her not guilty by reason of …
In 1987, Massip killed her 6-week-old son, Michael, by running over him with the family car after what her defense described as weeks of postpartum psychotic symptoms. A jury convicted her of second-degree murder in 1988, but the …
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