Why Texas Mothers Kill their kids?

[Evilah 1]

(A texas mother hanged her 4 kids (3 died, the 8mo. old survived miraculously) and then herself in a little town west of ft. worth texas)

Less than five years earlier, another Hudson Oaks family was torn apart when Dee Etta Perez, 39, shot her three children, ages 4, 9 and 10, before killing herself.

Andrea Yates drowned her five children in the family's Houston bathtub in 2001. In 2003, Deanna Laney beat her two young sons to death with stones in East Texas, and Lisa Ann Diaz drowned her daughters in a Plano bathtub. Dena Schlosser fatally severed her 10-month-old daughter's arms with a kitchen knife in 2004.

All four of those women were found innocent by reason of insanity. Yates initially was convicted of capital murder, but that verdict was overturned on appeal.

Anyone have any ideas why texas mothers in particular seem prone to killing their kids?

[coltonwade 27]

(A texas mother hanged her 4 kids (3 died, the 8mo. old survived miraculously) and then herself in a little town west of ft. worth texas)

Less than five years earlier, another Hudson Oaks family was torn apart when Dee Etta Perez, 39, shot her three children, ages 4, 9 and 10, before killing herself.

Andrea Yates drowned her five children in the family's Houston bathtub in 2001. In 2003, Deanna Laney beat her two young sons to death with stones in East Texas, and Lisa Ann Diaz drowned her daughters in a Plano bathtub. Dena Schlosser fatally severed her 10-month-old daughter's arms with a kitchen knife in 2004.

All four of those women were found innocent by reason of insanity. Yates initially was convicted of capital murder, but that verdict was overturned on appeal.

Anyone have any ideas why texas mothers in particular seem prone to killing their kids?

I saw this story today and about threw up ! What is wrong w/ People, not just in Texas but EVERYWHERE.

I Dont think its "Texas " mothers who are "prone" to killing their children . I mean your talking one mother out of millions every 5 yrs or so ?

Not to minimize it at all, 2 or 3 mothers , people is not a "high" number per say ether. I dont know what the other statistics are , frankly not something I choose, to or wish to google .

I live in Texas and this is NOT something we hear about all the time as seems you were implying . Other woman, other people kill children , people in other parts of the country , and it makes the news. So I dont think "texas mothers, woman" are any more "prone " to it than any other people are. I think that the conservative views that are the majority in Texas COULD contribute to people NOT getting help they need in Texas however.

But I dont think that makes the people in Texas any different than other parts of the country . If that makes any sense ?

Mindy

[SchexyMomma 0]

I am from Texas, have been all my life, and now I am a mom.

I can't answer this question. But I can say that this problem is not lost on the lawmakers here.

Texas is under a "protect the children" order (since Yates) from the Governor, meaning Judges and social workers are to specfically protect children from parents with mental illness. Problem is, they have to be in the system to be identified as having a mental illness. My guess is that this latest case- everyone around this mom knew she was in crisis but, sadly, did nothing about it... maybe they didn't know how bad things were.

But why Texas? I don't know. Were this happening somewhere else, I wouldn't be any less sad or horrified.

[nursekathy2u 0]

(A texas mother hanged her 4 kids (3 died, the 8mo. old survived miraculously) and then herself in a little town west of ft. worth texas)

Less than five years earlier, another Hudson Oaks family was torn apart when Dee Etta Perez, 39, shot her three children, ages 4, 9 and 10, before killing herself.

Andrea Yates drowned her five children in the family's Houston bathtub in 2001. In 2003, Deanna Laney beat her two young sons to death with stones in East Texas, and Lisa Ann Diaz drowned her daughters in a Plano bathtub. Dena Schlosser fatally severed her 10-month-old daughter's arms with a kitchen knife in 2004.

All four of those women were found innocent by reason of insanity. Yates initially was convicted of capital murder, but that verdict was overturned on appeal.

Anyone have any ideas why texas mothers in particular seem prone to killing their kids?

We are PRONE to killing our kids in Texas???? Good Lord what a statement!!! You have quoted 6 women out of the millions who live here.

[Carlene 12]

I do not know the family of the mom who hanged herself and her 4 daughters, but I know the children's godmother quite well - the one who was quoted in the story and was pictured on the front page of this morning's paper.

This poor woman just must have felt so hopeless. She had tried for months to get food stamps and Medicaid, but the caseworkers did not believe her when she told them her husband had not given her a dime since before the youngest child was born.

She worked two jobs - full time at Wendy's and part time cleaning houses - but never had enough money to stay ahead of the rent and utilities and child care expenses, food, etc.

(She was here legally, by the way.)

Andrea Yates was, IMHO, a victim of post-partum depression and her own fanatically religious community, whose standards she could not live up to. I think it's a terrible miscarriage of justice that her husband, who refused to heed the doctor's advice before the last baby was conceived, isn't serving time, as well.

According to the American Anthropological Association, more than 200 women kill their children in the United States each year. Most of them are from somewhere other than Texas:

Patricia Blackmon was 29 years old when she killed her two-year-old adopted daughter in Dothan, AL in May 1999.

Debra Jean Milke was 25 when she killer her four-year-old son in Arizona in 1989.

Dora Luz Durenrostro killed her two daughters, age four and nine, and her son, age 8, when she was 34 years old in San Jacinto, California in 1994.

Caro Socorro was 42 years old when she killer her three sons, age five, eight and 11, in Santa Rosa Valley, California in 1999.

Susan Eubanks murdered her four sons, ages four, six, seven, and 14, in San Marcos, California, in 1996 when she was 33.

Caroline Young was 49 in Haywood, California when she killed her four-year-old granddaughter and six-year-old grandson.

Robin Lee Row was 35 years old when she killed her husband, her 10-year-old son and her eight-year-old daughter in Boise, Idaho in 1992.

Michelle Sue Tharp was 29 years old in Burgettstown, Pennsylvania when she killed her seven-year-old daughter. Teresa Michelle Lewis killed her 51-year-old husband and 26-year-old step son in Keeling, Virgina when she was 33 years old.

[Evilah 1]

Anyone have any ideas why texas mothers in particular seem prone to killing their kids?

[Carlene 12]

Anyone have any ideas why texas mothers in particular seem prone to killing their kids?

Are you not able to read the stats? Again...more than 200 women kill their children in the United States each year. The vast majority of those are NOT from Texas. Therefore, common sense would dictate that Texas mothers are no more prone to killing their young - per capita - than anyone else. You have to remember that Texas is a very BIG place.

[Evilah 1]

I'm telling you that based on what I hear in the news, I've never heard of a woman killing her kids in any other state. I'm not a news or history buff, so I can't claim expert status. </p> <p> </p> <p>I would appreciate a decent reply post however. Like a link, or data relating the rate of child killlings by their mothers in other states. California has alot of people too, and I don't hear repeatedly on the news about mothers there killing their kids. </p> <p> </p> <p>I didn't say women in Texas are prone to kill their kids. I said it seemed that way, based on those news blips. I was hoping someone would post about why (if it only seems to be that texas mothers are prone to killing their kids) another human being might get that impression. A reason like skewed news coverage, or factual stats, or excess/novel Yates coverage. </p> <p> </p> <p>Evilah</p> <p> </p> <p>PS. Why are you so oppositional? Can't you just take a comment for it's face value instead of assigning negative connotations?</p>

[Alexandra 55]

Evilah, my guess as to why it seems Texas mothers are more prone to this is precisely because Texas is a very huge place. If we did the research (as Carlene did) we'd discover that, impressions aside, it's probably not more common in Texas than anywhere else. It just seems that way because of the larger population.

[SchexyMomma 0]

I think the national, mainstream media hates Texas. They hate Texas because of the "big oil" indistry, Enron, and because the Bush family is from here. So when something horrific happens here, as it does everywhere, the media picks up on it to show Texas in a bad way.

Just one theory.

[Carlene 12]

I'm telling you that based on what I hear in the news, I've never heard of a woman killing her kids in any other state. I'm not a news or history buff, so I can't claim expert status. </p> <p> </p> <p>I would appreciate a decent reply post however. Like a link, or data relating the rate of child killlings by their mothers in other states. California has alot of people too, and I don't hear repeatedly on the news about mothers there killing their kids. </p> <p> </p> <p>I didn't say women in Texas are prone to kill their kids. I said it seemed that way, based on those news blips. I was hoping someone would post about why (if it only seems to be that texas mothers are prone to killing their kids) another human being might get that impression. A reason like skewed news coverage, or factual stats, or excess/novel Yates coverage. </p> <p> </p> <p>Evilah</p> <p> </p> <p>PS. Why are you so oppositional? Can't you just take a comment for it's face value instead of assigning negative connotations?</p>

I'm sorry you find my replies "oppositional". The fact is, you started a thread titled "Why Texas Mothers Kill Their Kids?" and, to me, the "face value" of that is erroneous. Texas mothers do not kill their children any more often than women from other states.

Here is the link to the American Anthropological Association's paper on mothers who kill their children:

WHY WOMEN KILL THEIR CHILDREN

Here is a link to a study on women on death row. Please note that 11 were convicted of killing their children, but only 2 of those were from Texas. Alabama, a much smaller state, has 2 women on death row who killed their children. Arizona has one. California has 4 (plus a woman who killed her niece), Ohio has one, and Pennsylvania has one.

Case Summaries for Current Female Death Row Inmates

As to why it would "seem" to you that Texas women are more apt to murder their own children than anyone else, I cannot be certain, but I suspect it is because of the media coverage. Almost everyone has heard of Susan Smith, but that doesn't really say anything about the women of South Carolina in general. Same for Mary Beth Tinning (of NY) who killed her NINE children, one after the other.

[Hazelbunny 0]

Anyone have any ideas why texas mothers in particular seem prone to killing their kids?

You could fit fifteen of the fifty states inside Texas with a thousand square miles left over. Not to mention that we have the largest population outside of California.

We are not prone to killing our children - chldren die almost every day at the hands of their parents and most of them do not live in Texas. I live in Houston and I was horrified by what Andrea Yates did. As a parent I can't even imagine what kind of sick mind is necessary to take the life of your own child in such a cold blooded way.

Assuming that Texans are "more prone" to kill their children is like assuming that everying rides a horse and has a ten gallon hat in Texas because you have seen three people on the news from Texas who rode horses and wore hats.

[Hazelbunny 0]

Also Texans identify themselves as Texans. My uncle is from Michigan and when I asked him what they called themselves he had to ask someone else to come up with Michiganders.

The lady from New York or the woman from South Carolina probably wasn't identified over and over ad infiniteum as "The Texas woman who......" Media plays on perception and obviously people have this perception even though the facts do not back it up.

[Carlene 12]

Some more data....you can Google any of these names and get the full story:

Sweethearts Amy Grossberg and Brian Peterson of New Jersey delivered their baby in a motel room, killed him and left his body in a dumpster.

18-year-old, Melissa Drexler, also from New Jersey, arrived at her high-school prom, locked herself in a bathroom stall, and gave birth to a boy. She then left him dead in a garbage can. Next: she touched herself up and returned to the dance floor.

New Jersey might just be the "Killer Mom" capital. In Monmouth County, NJ, where Drexler left her baby, there were 12 abandoned babies in the past 10 years. Four New Jersey teenagers abandoned babies in one six month period.

California is pretty bad, too. In Los Angeles County in one year there were 10 newborns left to die.

Texas women, by my count, are no more cold-bloded than any others.

[babygrl1234 6]

Maybe a better question would be why do mother-child murders in Texas get the most press and are the most memorable?

Personally I try to not think about this kind of stuff because it horrifies me. I remember the Andrea Yates thing and that one chick who drove her kids into the lake (Susan something?) but I am pretty sure she was from another state. Mental or not I do not feel one bit of sorrow for these woman. There are woman every day who battle through mental illness and they don't kill their own children.