Killer parents: 10 cases where mothers and fathers murdered their own children
Of all the crimes humans perpetrate against one another, there is perhaps none more unimaginable than a parent killing their own child.
Such was the case on Jan. 23, 2010, when Neal Jacobson shot and killed his wife, Franki, and the couple’s 7-year-old twin boys, Eric and Joshua, before attempting to kill himself by overdosing on prescription medications.
POST INVESTIGATION: Bizarre tale of millionaire Neal Jacobson: Did medication lead to murder?
Related: Neal Jacobson was not the first to kill on antidepressants. Here are 10 other cases.
While he never denied the crimes, Jacobson, along with some of his friends, family and doctors, said the antidepressants prescribed to Jacobson three weeks before the murders might have been at least partially to blame.
Jacobson pleaded guilty to three counts of first-degree murder and is presently serving three life sentences.
Following are 10 other true crime cases of filicide — the act of a parent killing their own child:
Ureka Black, Lanaya Cardwell, Jake Guidry accused of 3 unrelated killings of kids in 4 days
Over a four-day period in September, three children in Louisiana were killed by their parents in unrelated incidents. Lanaya Cardwell is charged with punching and killing her 2-year-old daughter, and Cardwell’s boyfriend, Phillip Garder, is accused of dumping the toddler’s body in a remote area. Ureka Black, 32, is accused of throwing her 10-month-old and 5-year-old sons off a bridge, killing the younger one. And Jake Guidry, 26, admitted to killing his 11-month-old baby by hitting the child “too hard.” Police also charged the baby’s mother, Kageionna Butler, 21, with murder.
Matthew Coleman charged with killing 2 tots to 'save the world'
Matthew Taylor Coleman, 40, faces two county of first-degree foreign murder in the August deaths of his 2-year-old son and 10-month-old daughter with a spear fishing gun. He told authorities the children were possessed with “serpent DNA” and were "going to grow into monsters." Coleman had driven the children from Santa Barbara, Calif. to Mexico, where he is accused of killing them in Rosarito Beach and then dumping their bodies. Coleman, a follower of QAnon conspiracy theories, told authorities that "he knew it was wrong, but it was the only course of action that would save the world." Coleman pleaded not guilty,
Isabel Martinez fatally stabs her entire family except for 1 survivor
Isabel Martinez in July 2017 stabbed to death her husband, 33, and four of her children, ages 2, 4, 7 and 10, before cutting herself. The 35-year-old Georgia woman also stabbed her other child — a 9-year-old —who survived the stabbing. Martinez also survived and pleaded guilty to the murders, saying she believed a “devil-like spirit” was trying to take her children.
Susan Smith drowns 2 young sons, claims carjacker took them
Susan Smith in October, 1994, drowned her 3-year-old and 14-month-old sons near the family’s South Carolina home. Smith was reportedly dating a man who did not want children, and, to get rid of her own, drove her car into a lake with the children strapped inside.
She initially blamed a made-up kidnapper, but then admitted her crimes. Smith was sentenced to life in prison and is eligible for parole in 2024.
Mother shoots 3 children: 1 dies, 1 suffers stroke, the other is paralyzed
In a similar case in 1997 in Oregon, Diane Downs, then 27, shot herself and her three children, ages 3, 7 and 8, blaming the crimes on a non-existent carjacker. One child died, one suffered a debilitating stroke and the other was paralyzed. Downs at the time was dating a married man who did not want children, her diary later revealed. Downs maintained her innocence but was sentenced to life plus 50 years after one of the surviving children testified that it was her mother who shot her.
Andrea Yates drowned her 5 children one by one in bathtub
Texas-born Andrea Yates in June 2001 drowned her five young children, one by one, in a bathtub while her husband was at work. Yates, then 37, was convicted on two counts of murder and sentenced to life in prison. The verdict was reversed on appeal, and Yates in 2006 was released on bond. The following day she was admitted to a psychiatric facility where she remains to this day.
California mother drives SUV off cliff, kills 6 children, her wife and herself
In March 2018, Jennifer Hart drove her SUV over a 100-foot cliff in Northern California, killing herself, her wife, Sarah Hart, and the couples’ six adopted children. The Harts, who were living in Washington at the time, had been under investigation in three states for withholding food and physically and emotionally abusing the children, who ranged in age at the time of their deaths from 12 to 19.
Mother slays 7 children, but first she did away with the family duck
Raina Mersane Ina Thaiday in December 2014 stabbed to death seven of her eight children and her niece before stabbing herself 35 times. Thaiday, then 40, first killed the family’s pet duck then said a dove’s call was a sign from God that she must “kill her children in order to save them.” The victims included four girls and four boys ranging in age from 2 to 14. Thaiday survived, and an Australian judge exempted her from trial and committed her to a mental health facility.
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Christopher Watts kills wife, drops 3-year-old, 4-year-old into oil tank
Christopher Watts, 33, in August 2018 strangled to death his 34-year-old pregnant wife, Shan’ann. He then drove her body, along with the couples’ two daughters, to his worksite near the family's Colorado home. Watts then smothered 3-year-old Celeste before dropping her and her 4-year-old sister, Bella, into an oil tank. He buried his wife’s body nearby. Watts, who was having an extramarital affair at the time, told authorities he killed his wife because his wife had killed the girls. He eventually pleaded guilty to three counts of first-degree murder and was sentenced to five life terms in prison.
Timothy Jones gets death for killing 5 children; he drove around with their bodies for a week
In August 2014, Timothy Ray Jones Jr., of South Carolina, killed his five children and then drove around with their bodies for more than a week before dumping them in garbage bags alongside a dirt road in Alabama. Jones, then 27, was separated from his wife, who was pregnant with the couple’s sixth child. The deceased children ranged in ages from 1 to 8. Jones was found guilty of all five murders and sentenced to death. In November 2021, Jones attempted to have his conviction overturned, claiming the prosecutor prejudiced the jury by showing them photographs of the children that had been taken after their deaths.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: True crime cases of filicide where children are killed by parents
