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Killer Moms 16 Bizarre True Crime Stories of Murderous Moms By Jack Rosewood |
Copyright © 2020 by LAK Publishing ALL RIGHTS RESERVED No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. |
Free Bonus! Get two free books when you sign up to my VIP newsletter at http://www. jackrosewood. com/free 150 interesting trivia about serial killers and the story of serial killer Herbert Mullin. |
Contents Introduction Chapter 1 “I Promise You Whatever You Want,” Christy Sheats Childhood Sweethearts A Rocky Marriage “Just Shoot Yourself” Chapter 2 The Made for TV Murderess, Casey Anthony A Wild Child Who's Daddy? The Disappearance A Mountain of Lies Charges Without a Body A Media Circus Not a Slam Dunk Case The... |
Chapter 5 The Cold as Ice Mom, Michelle Blair A Life of Poverty, Crime, and Abuse The Murders The Eviction Chapter 6 The Female “Fugitive,” Diane Downs Diane Frederickson The Bushy Haired Man A Circumstantial Case The Female Fugitive Aftermath Chapter 7 The Serial Killer Who Was Released, Marybeth Tinning Duanesburg... |
A Complicated Girl Rusty Yates Building a Family A Decaying Mental State The Massacre in Clear Lake City The First Trial The Second Trial Chapter 11 Playing “Chicken” with Her Children, Lexus Stagg Some People Should Never Have Children The Deadly Game An Attempted Coverup Chapter 12 A “Carjacker” Did It, Susan Smith... |
The Devil Made Me Do It Chapter 15 Killing for the Apocalypse, Dena Schlosser Early Difficulties Life Before the Apocalypse “He Touched Me” Dena and Andrea Chapter 16 Protecting Her Territory, Jessica Edens Ben and Jessica Edens “Everyone You Love Is Gone” Conclusion |
Introduction When most people think of the most notorious crimes and criminals in history, they think of men. The statistics certainly show that men commit more crime in general and also more violent crimes, but women are not without representation. There has been a fair share of notorious female killers throughout hi... |
You'll find out, though, as you read through the pages of this book, that the reasons why and the circumstances in which mothers have killed their own are quite varied. Some mothers killed out of jealousy, some due to revenge, and others seem just plain crazy. You'll read about some high-profile killer moms that you... |
Finally, a number of these cases defy explanation. Dena Schlosser and Isabel Martinez are two of the most bizarre killers of all, male or female, due to the strange reasons they gave for killing their family members. Both women believe they had a one-way phone line to God and that he told them to kill. So, strap in... |
Chapter 1 “I Promise You Whatever You Want,” Christy Sheats Some people can never let go. Even when they know they've lost their jobs, when they know they've lost an argument, and—often especially—when a relationship is over, there are just some people who will never admit to the cold, hard facts of reality. Of cour... |
or husband, who—often under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol—decides to take his ex's life and anyone nearby along with her. But occasionally, women are the ones doing the killing in these cases. And that shouldn't be surprising, should it? Women feel those same emotions as men when a relationship ends, especia... |
Childhood Sweethearts Christy Sheats was born Christy Byrd in the very average, middle-class, middle American town of Decatur, Alabama. Life is slow and quiet in Decatur, with very little crime. It is a place where neighbors still know and talk to each other. Most people who are from Decatur like it and wouldn't want... |
A Rocky Marriage The first few years of the Sheats' marriage was wedded bliss. They moved into the suburban town of Katy, Texas, and had two daughters, Taylor and Madison. The Sheats family did everything that a middle-class American suburban family does: they went to barbeques and block parties, they went on vacation... |
obsessiveness. Christy was also close to her grandfather. He was the one person who not only listened to all of her problems but also seemed to understand and offer legitimate solutions for all of them. By late 2011, as Christy's mental health began to deteriorate, she came to count on her grandfather's counsel mor... |
mundane things, from what they were wearing to where Jason was if he didn't come home immediately after work. The arguments could get pretty heated, so much so that the police were called to the Sheats residence 14 times in 2012 alone! Jason knew that the situation was bad, but he didn't know how bad it was or if he... |
“Just Shoot Yourself” In the weeks leading up to June 24, Jason was planning on making some important moves. He had talked with some of his family members about divorcing Christy and had researched some area divorce lawyers. The logistics would be settled later, he believed, but the time seemed right to move ahead wi... |
As soon as Christy convened the meeting, she reached into the cushions of the sofa she was sitting on and pulled out grandpa's pistol. She had planned the encounter hours earlier. Thinking that Christy only intended to kill herself, Jason challenged her when he saw the gun. “Just shoot yourself,” he said. “Make it... |
the local law enforcement officers who investigated the case, that was her intent. “He felt Christy wanted him to suffer,” said Fort Bend County Sheriff Tory Nehls. “Christy knew how much he loved Taylor and Madison and how much they loved him. ” Christy Sheats just couldn't let go of the life she once had and that ... |
Chapter 2 The Made for TV Murderess, Casey Anthony There is no denying that Americans love their crime. At any given time, all you have to do is peruse cable television for a few minutes to find a true crime show or a crime forensics program. If there isn't a true crime show on, then you can probably catch a crime-t... |
This case was destined for the ID channel from the start. The antagonist and defendant, Casey Anthony, was a physically attractive yet unsympathetic defendant. Casey looked like an all-American girl, but once details of her lifestyle emerged, the goodwill she initially garnered quickly turned into hate. Quite frankly... |
Social media reacted quickly to the verdict, which was one of the first cases to extensively involve and be followed by various social media sites. The “Casey Anthony Case,” as it became known, became so associated with social media that it was also known as the “Social Media Murder Case. ” In the end, the tragic ca... |
A Wild Child Casey Anthony was born in Warren, Ohio on March 19, 1986, to George and Cindy Anthony. If you've never been there, Warren is a friendly yet hard-scrabble town just outside the once-thriving industrial city of Youngstown, Ohio. A true union city, the people of Warren were traditionally either employed in o... |
call, Casey would intercept the messages. When they got through, such as at parent-teacher conferences, Casey would show her daddy her big blue eyes and promise to do better. As is the case with most fathers, George was manipulated by his daughter. But, in a family where both parents are in the home, at least one i... |
Who's Daddy? While Casey was cutting class with her friends, she wasn't just drinking a little beer and smoking a little pot, she was also having sex. It is no surprise that, when you mix alcohol with hormone-driven boys and a cute girl, things were going to happen. But Casey didn't seem to worry much about consequen... |
fatherhood, but he did his best, and by all accounts, he was doing better than Casey. He spent time with Caylee, and unlike Casey, he had steady employment. But then the DNA test came back. Jesse wasn't Caylee's father! To this day, it isn't known who Caylee's father is. It was later revealed that the father could... |
and make a more serious attempt at being a mother. Casey agreed, but the effort she made was minimal at best. |
The Disappearance Casey and Caylee officially lived at the Anthony home but were gone quite a bit. Casey continued her hard-partying ways, occasionally worked, and sometimes stayed with friends or her latest fling. Needless to say, it wasn't the most stable situation for Caylee. The Anthonys tried to do what they co... |
After a couple of weeks, Casey finally called Cindy and told her that she and Caylee were doing well. She told her mother that they were staying at a friend's home and that the reason she didn't return their calls was that she was busy looking for work. Cindy was skeptical and asked questions, especially about Cayle... |
Anthony home without Caylee. Casey continued to tell the story that Caylee was with Zanny, but the story changed slightly, with Zanny now a potential kidnapper. More worried about Caylee than Casey was, Cindy called 911. "I can't find my granddaughter,” Cindy Anthony said to the 911 operator. “She [Casey Anthony] ... |
A Mountain of Lies George and Cindy were distraught that their granddaughter had been allegedly kidnapped by her nanny, but when they asked Casey why the woman would do such a thing, she couldn't give them a logical answer. At times, she implied that maybe Zanny wanted Caylee for herself, while at other times, she sug... |
hot body contest than the fact that her daughter was missing. This was the pattern for the entire month between the time when Casey and Caylee left the Anthony home on June 16 until the police were called on July 15. Casey simply went on with her life as if nothing had happened and as if she never even had a child. ... |
The realization that Casey made “Zanny” up had some serious implications. First, it meant that Casey would lie to her friends, family, and police about something deadly serious. Second, the lie certainly suggested that she was hiding something. The detectives still had to determine what it was that she was hiding, bu... |
Orange County detectives. Not only did Casey's lies make her look guilty in the eyes of the police, but they were also criminally prosecutable. On July 16, 2008, Casey Anthony was arrested for child endangerment and interfering in a police investigation. She was given a hefty bond of $500,000, and after the local ne... |
was a promiscuous narcissist. Not exactly a ringing endorsement from your bail bondsman! What Casey did next showed either a lack of intelligence, a lack of self-awareness, or a little of both. While out on bail, she was arrested on August 29 for writing checks stolen from one of her friends. It was certainly not ... |
Charges Without a Body Casey's homecoming was far from joyous. According to reports of those close to the Anthony family, the tension between Casey and her parents could be cut with a knife. Although George and Cindy still wanted to believe that Casey didn't kill Caylee, they were starting to believe that she knew mo... |
first-degree murder, and refused bail. Casey Anthony was facing a potential death penalty, and in Florida, death penalties are routinely carried out. As Casey served her sentence in the county jail, a major development in the case began taking place near her family's home. Roy Kronk was a meter reader for the loca... |
A Media Circus The national media began hovering around the Anthony home as soon as some of the details about the case emerged. Once Casey was charged with her daughter's murder, surveillance of the Anthony home became a non-stop part of the news cycle. Many of the more “law and order” pundits on cable television de... |
use for Nancy Grace, Geraldo, and John Walsh. When all types of media coverage of the case were considered together, it truly was the trial of the century. |
Not a Slam Dunk Case By early 2011, the pre-trial motions were all done and the lawyers had assembled their teams. Linda Burdick led the prosecution for Orange County while Jose Baez fronted the defense team. As Casey Anthony didn't have the funds to pay for such a high-profile attorney, Baez took the case pro bono ... |
Then there was the decomposition in the trunk. Not only did the trunk give off the scent of death when it was recovered from the impound lot, a cadaver dog “hit” on it. Of course, Caylee's body being discovered only about a quarter of a mile from the Anthony home was also another piece of circumstantial evidence ag... |
Baez skillfully tiptoed around some of Casey's more egregious lies but placed the blame on George Anthony for the disposal of Caylee's body. He claimed that Casey only listened to her father because she was afraid of him after years of sexual and physical abuse. Needless to say, the abuse claims proved to be the fi... |
The Verdict and Aftermath After nearly two months of testimony, the case went to the jury. To the pundits and most of America, the verdict seemed like a foregone conclusion. Surely they would find her guilty of murder, most people thought. After all, Casey didn't do herself any favors when she appeared to laugh at o... |
Several politicians across the United States also felt the need to get involved by proposing “Caylee's Law” in some states. The different versions of Caylee's Law make it a felony to not report a missing child to the police. Many questioned if it said more about our society that such a law needed to be passed or ... |
Chapter 3 Kelly Grant and the Make a Wish Murder One of the unfortunate realities of the world we live in is that there are a lot of people out there who don't want to work for a living. These people would rather have others work for them, victimize others for money, or both. Most of these types of people can be ign... |
social media accounts and Go Fund Me page resulted in good-intentioned people giving her more than $22,000. Kelly then got more than another $500,000 worth of medical care from Medicaid for her daughter. But things never added up with Kelly. When the Colorado authorities began asking questions in 2017, Oliva sudden... |
Kelly Renee Grant Kelly Renee Grant was born Kelly Renee Turner in 1978 in the Houston, Texas area. At this point, she is a bit of a mystery other than she was potentially raised in an abusive household. She grew up in the Houston area, but little more is known about her early life. She married and had a daughter an... |
Yes, it did seem like a very strange move for a woman in Kelly's situation to make. Besides the superior medical facilities that Houston had, Kelly also had a support network in Texas, and Olivia had her friends. But Colorado has better government benefits. It now appears that Kelly Grant moved to Colorado solely... |
Neuro gastronintestinal Encephalomyopathy Mitochondrial neuro gastronintestinal encephalomyopathy syndrome, often shortened to neuro gastronintestinal encephalomyopathy is a rare disease that affects the ability of those with it to digest food properly. The disease can be quite painful, and even when treated, it can l... |
Olivia's account, Kelly made sure to post plenty of pictures of the cute little girl. In the text on the page, it stated: "We are hoping for support both financially, spiritually, and emotionally. Not only will this be a taxing time for Kelly (mom), and Olivia but for Olivia's sisters and the friends and family who... |
so be it! |
Olivia Loses Her Battle By the summer of 2017, Olivia's condition had severely deteriorated. None of the medications and treatments Olivia was given seemed to work. She was constantly sick and in pain, so her doctors advised that she be placed in a hospice where she could be given around-the-clock-care. Olivia Turne... |
a judge signed off on warrant that allowed for Olivia's body to be exhumed by the district attorney. Another autopsy was done that was more thorough, revealing that the little girl's cause of death was quite different than what her mother claimed. The autopsy showed that Olivia had not received medical care for some... |
Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy? Kelly Turner was charged with the first-degree murder of Olivia Grant in October 2019 and is currently awaiting trial in the Douglass County, Colorado jail. The local community breathed a sigh of relief when Kelly was arrested and the police were praised for staying with the case. “I am... |
Munchausen syndrome is a clinically recognized disorder whereby the afflicted person feigns symptoms of a disease to gain attention. Those who commit the disease by proxy pick another person, usually a child or a vulnerable adult, to be the recipient of the feigned symptoms. Some close to the case think Kelly may h... |
Chapter 4 Serial Killing Her Kids, Megan Huntsman Serial murder has a decidedly masculine appearance. Male serial killers get the most media attention by far, as they are the subject of most serial killer documentaries and fictional serial killer movies. Statistically speaking, the reputation is well-deserved, with ... |
and partners, usually for financial gain but also sometimes seemingly for the thrill of the kill. The most commonly used weapon by black widows is poison, ranging from sedatives and tranquilizers to ethylene glycol (antifreeze). One of the more famous black widows of recent history is Canadian Melissa Ann Shepard, wh... |
A Lack of Confidence Megan Huntsman was born in 1975 to a middle-class family in suburban Salt Lake City, Utah. By her early teens, Megan had grown into her looks and turned out to be an attractive, petite brunette, but according to her mother Joyce, she lacked confidence. Megan was an average student, and although ... |
Not So Pleasant Grove, Utah The couple eventually moved into a home owned by Darren's family in Pleasant Grove, Utah. Darren's family hoped that the home would bring some stability to the increasingly chaotic familial situation, particularly for the children. No one from either the West or Huntsman families knew just... |
pregnancies a secret from her family, friends, and even Darren, so she and he claim. Due to her heavy meth use, Megan usually didn't put on much weight during her pregnancies and when she did, it usually wasn't much and she was able to claim that it was normal weight gain. When labor came, she simply went into the ga... |
on federal drug charges in 2006. A DEA operation in Utah caught Darren in its net of mid-level dealers and manufacturers. After being charged with a very lengthy and very serious list of crimes, Darren pled guilty to possessing chemicals intended to manufacture meth. He was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison. ... |
the house up, intending to clear out all of the bad memories of his meth-fueled past. When he got to the garage, he found more than he could have imagined. Hidden behind several medium-sized boxes, West found a small box covered with electrical tape. He never remembered putting the curious-looking box there, but mu... |
Huntsman confessed to killing all but one of her babies, stating that she did so because she couldn't feed any more mouths while she was feeding her meth addiction. The one that she didn't kill was stillborn, no doubt a result of Huntsman's meth addiction. With that said, Huntsman could offer few details to the polic... |
Guilty Plea Although Megan Huntsman confessed to the police, she pled not guilty to first-degree murder charges. Of course, this was more legal maneuvering than anything. Utah has the death penalty, and in a conservative state with high birthrates, there's a good chance that just about any jury would not only find Hu... |
For the people of the usually quiet state of Utah, Megan Huntsman's crime is impossible to fathom. The god-fearing, conservative people of the state can't understand how a mother could kill her child, never mind go on a serial killer spree on her children. Utah governor Gary Herbert perhaps best summed up the atti... |
Chapter 5 The Cold as Ice Mom, Michelle Blair You have to be a tough person to live in some of America's inner cities, especially Detroit, Michigan. Detroit consistently ranks at the top of all of the most negative indexes—poverty, crime, and murder rates are among the highest in the United States, and in some catego... |
his siblings, which is why she killed them. The police didn't take long to determine that her story was not only a lie but that it also covered up far greater abuse that was taking place in Michelle Blair's home. Detroit is truly a tough city and the homicide investigators who worked on the Michelle Blair case had a... |
A Life of Poverty, Crime, and Abuse There's no doubt that Michelle Blair had a tough life as a child in Detroit. She grew up in an unstable home with plenty of crime and poverty all around. She was raised by a single mother who didn't give her much guidance and reportedly failed to protect her, as Michelle was said t... |
America, receiving government aid doesn't mean you can't work,. Many state and federal aid programs are set up to help recipients with job training and they are generally encouraged to find work. Aid isn't intended to be permanent, so besides the carrots of the incentives, there are several sticks used, such as agenc... |
The torture continued for several years, partly due to two reasons: the children didn't attend school, and Michelle's extended family didn't seem to care. Somehow Michelle got away with claiming her children were “homeschooled,” although there are no official records of them taking any tests or passing any grades. Nee... |
The Murders Michelle Blair and her few supporters later claimed a variety of reasons for the murders, essentially saying that they were not planned nor premeditated. Although it is probably true that Blair didn't plan to kill her children the way a serial killer sets out to kill person after person, she put both of the... |
2012, but it got much worse during the summer. Michelle thought of new and crueler ways to abuse her son, such as by making him drink Windex and other household cleaning products. Finally, on August 30, 2012, Michelle Blair took one of her torture sessions too far. The reason why she wrapped a plastic bag around hi... |
home, although in the long-run it never really helped them. With Stephen dead, Michelle turned her rage on Stoni. Michelle Blair didn't need an excuse to abuse any of her children. However, she did seem to have at least one kid for whom she saved her worst abuse. In the months after Stephen's murder, Blair began d... |
Blair went on about her life. No social workers, police, or even extended family members asked about Stephen or Stoni. It was if the two kids just disappeared off the face of the Earth and no one cared. |
The Eviction For the most part, life went on as normal for Michelle Blair in the two years after she killed Stephen and Stoni. She abused her surviving children but was careful not to take things too far and no one asked any questions. Social services weren't called again and Blair kept collecting her government mone... |
began hauling her possessions to the curb. Chairs, dressers, and electronic equipment were all brought to the curb before the crew finally got to a large freezer. They unplugged the freezer and opened it up to empty it, but were stopped cold in their tracks by what they found. They were horrified to find the bodies... |
cameras, and even her attorneys. If she was thinking about taking the case to trial, her behavior in the courtroom alone would have been enough for a conviction. Blair's lawyers suggested she plead guilty to one count of first-degree murder, which she did in July 2015 at the age of 36. The guilty plea gave Michelle... |
The female inmates and guards of the Michigan Department of Corrections may have to contend with Michelle Blair for decades to come, but at least the people of Detroit are finally rid of her. |
Chapter 6 The Female “Fugitive,” Diane Downs There's a good chance you've seen the hit 1960s American television show The Fugitive at some point in your life. Or maybe you caught the 1993 film of the same name that was a remake of the series. If you haven't, both the series and film are about a doctor named Richar... |
scene was as bizarre as it was horrific. It was not something that usually took place around Springfield, especially since it appeared to be a random attack. When the local police came to the hospital to question Downs about the attack, things quickly took an even more bizarre turn. Diane told the police officers t... |
Diane Frederickson Diane Downs was born Diane Frederickson in 1955 in Phoenix, Arizona to a middle-class family. Frederickson was born into a much more conservative America and Arizona was one of the most conservative states at the time. It was the home state of Barry Goldwater, which was a sign of Arizonans' conserv... |
The expulsion created a rift between Diane and her parents that was never fixed. She left home at age 17 and drifted for a while before meeting Steve Downs in 1973. The match wasn't necessarily made in heaven—far from it—but it provided both people with something they wanted yet was lacking in their lives. For Diane... |
Once the divorce was finalized, Steve paid support and visited his children, but Diane didn't seem to care much if he was around. She had her sights set on someone else. Steve had good reason to believe that Danny wasn't his son. Their marriage hadn't stopped Diane's wild ways, and while the couple was married, she ... |
then he would essentially become an instant stepfather. Fatherhood was not something Steven Knickerbocker had ever considered or wanted. So, Knickerbocker broke things off with Downs and went back to his wife. When Diane pressed him, he told her that he didn't want children. Emotionally devastated, Diane Downs deci... |
The Bushy-Haired Man Getting spurned by Knickerbocker proved to be a major turning point in Diane Downs' life and the lives of her children. She decided to move far away from Phoenix, so she took a job as a mail carrier in Springfield, Oregon. Springfield is located next to Eugene in the scenic Willamette Valley. Th... |
involved murdering her children to get sympathy from the public, and ultimately, win back Knickerbocker. There was just one problem with Downs' plan—all of it. Diane Downs was truly a narcissist, which gave her the mindset to even think that doing such a thing was okay, but she wasn't a criminal. She just didn't th... |
detectives investigated the case, though, the more it looked like Downs was lying to them. She told the police that a mysterious “bushy-haired” man attacked them, but nothing appeared to have been stolen and there was no sexual assault or even an attempted sexual assault on Diane or any of the children. The alleged... |
noticed her was that she was driving so slowly. The police theorized that she drove so slow in the hope that her children would bleed to death. Still, the police had no hard evidence. Forensic science was still a few years away from DNA profiling and there were no witnesses who saw the crime. The county prosecutor... |
A Circumstantial Case The case against Diane Downs was strong, but it was far from airtight or a “slam dunk. ” All of the evidence was for the most part circumstantial, although it was certainly a lot of circumstantial evidence, and when considered as a whole, it was quite damning. Besides the evidence already mentio... |
Diane Downs was sentenced to life in prison plus 50 years, which meant that she had to do a minimum of 25 years behind bars before the parole board would even consider releasing her. Downs was quickly whisked away and sent to the state women's prison in Salem. The people of the Willamette Valley hoped it would be ... |
The Female Fugitive Diane Downs entered the women's prison as a high-profile inmate with a target on her back. Although women's prisons tend to be a little different than men's prisons, and far less dangerous, they do have some of the same pitfalls. Many of Downs' fellow prisoners were mothers, and although they may... |
the razor wire fence, she did not have watchful eyes on her. Second, she had the advantage of being in a less secure facility. The women's prison in Salem was far less secure than most of the men's facilities in Oregon at the time and it was also less secure than many women's prisons in other states. Still, she had ... |
Aftermath Diane Downs' violent, selfish act on the evening of May 19, 1983, devastated her family and sent shock waves throughout Oregon that continue to reverberate today. The immediate and most obvious victims were her three children who were in the car that night. For whatever reasons, Steve Downs didn't take cust... |
Most people familiar with the case don't give Downs much of a chance of getting parole in 2021 or at any point, for that matter. Parole is given to inmates who meet two criteria: they must show that they are rehabilitated and are no longer a threat to the community, and they must also show a level of contrition. For D... |
Chapter 7 The Serial Killer Who Was Released, Marybeth Tinning Serial killers are rarely ever released from prison, and in the United States, this is even rarer. Sure, by law in many states, serial killers who are serving life sentences have the opportunity—the right—to appear before a parole board. Often these parol... |
was released on parole by the Illinois Department of Corrections in March 2019. Other than those two cases, you have to look far and wide to find examples of known serial killers being released from prison and most of them are in developing countries. Another major exception to the rule is American Marybeth Tinning. ... |
Duanesburg, New York Marybeth Tinning was born Marybeth Roe in Duanesburg, New York on September 11, 1942. Duanesburg is today a small town in north-central New York, but when Marybeth was born, it was a lot more active. Many of the young men of the area, including Marybeth's father, went off to fight in Europe and t... |
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