Killer Moms! From Poison To Asphyxiation — 15 Cold-Blooded Women Who Murdered Their Own Kids
March 9 2015, Published 7:09 a.m. ET
At least a couple hundred mothers murder their kids in cold blood every year in America. From asphyxiation to poison, click through RadarOnline.com's gallery to see the most infamous crimes committed by some incredibly depraved parents.
In 1983, Diane Downs was a 27-year-old Oregon divorcee when she shot her three children, killing one. She later told investigators a mysterious "bushy haired stranger" committed the crime after flagging her down on the side of the road.
It turned out that Downs pulled the trigger after becoming completely obsessed with a married man who she knew didn't want to have kids with her. The murderer mom was sentenced to life in prison and her story was turned into the Farrah Fawcett movie Small Sacrifices.
Marybeth Tinning is serving life in prison after admitting to being a serial-killing mom.
Tinning took the lives of nine of her children over a 14-year period, killing for the last time in 1985.
Debra Jenner-Tyler shocked the country in 1987 when she used a toy metal airplane and a knife to kill her 3-year-old daughter Abby Lynn.
Jenner-Tyler said she stabbed the "finicky" little girl over 70 times because she "was under a lot of stress" due to work obligations.
Susan Smith sparked a major manhunt in 1994 when she charged that an African-American man had carjacked her car with her two sons, Michael, 3, and Alex, 14 months, in the backseat.
After a nine-day search, Smith confessed that she had actually buckled the boys in their seats and pushed the vehicle into a South Carolina lake where they drowned to death. The earliest the maniacal mom is eligible for parole is in 2024.
In 1998, daycare worker Kenisha Berry tossed her four-day old newborn son into a dumpster in Texas.
Two dumpster divers discovered the child's body in a garbage bag and first thought it was a doll. The baby's mouth was duct-taped, leading investigators to determine the cause of death as suffocation.
Andrea Yates drowned her children, but she did the evil 2001 deed in the bathtub at the family's Houston home. Yates suffered from mental illness and told investigators that drowning her five children under 7 was "all I thought about."
After an initial murder conviction in 2002, she was found not guilty four years later by reason of insanity.
Deena Schlosser amputated her 11-month-old girl's arms with a knife in November 2004.
Police found the disturbed killer at the scene of the gruesome murder singing praise songs to Jesus. She was later determined to be not guilty due to insanity.
Paris Talley burned to death in 2005 after her mother China Arnold put the three-week old baby in a microwave. Arnold was upset after her boyfriend got in a fight with her over whether or not he was the child's real dad.
"No adjectives exist to adequately describe this heinous atrocity," the judge said to Arnold at her trial. "This act is shocking and utterly abhorrent for a civilized society." She sentenced the disturbed woman to life in prison with no chance of parole.
Megan Huntsman allegedly confessed to killing six of her newborn babies by suffocation and strangulation between 1996 and 2006.
Authorities found seven infant bodies — one was reportedly born stillborn — when they searched the woman's garage after they received a tip from her estranged husband.
Casey Anthony's bizarre case captivated the country when she was accused of murdering her 2-year-old girl Caylee in Florida back in 2008. Anthony failed to report her daughter missing until a month after she disappeared.
Anthony was found not guilty thanks to her defense team's contention that her child accidentally drowned in a pool on the family's property. Her lawyers also claimed she lied to investigators in the case because she was suffering the ill effects of a dysfunctional upbringing.
In 2008, Leatrice Brewer drowned her three children in New York. She claimed she did it to rescue them from a voodoo curse.
Brewer was found not guilty due to "mental disease or defect" and she later tried to go after her children's estate, estimated to be worth $350,000.
Jeanette Hawes stabbed her two kids, Shakayla, 3, and Jordan, 1, in the bathroom of an Augusta, Georgia, store in 2009.
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She got a not-guilty verdict after a jury ruled she was insane.
Susan Eubanks got a gun and executed her four sons — aged 14 to 4 — in San Marcos, Calif.
She reportedly tried to pin the blame for the ruthless 2010 murders on her parents and inadequate treatment for mental illness.
Merisane Warria was charged with eight counts of murder in December 2014 for the cold-blooded killing of her seven children and niece in Cairns, Australia.
"I would suspect it might be the most tragic event we have had to deal with," Cairns detective inspector Bruno Asnicar said of the brutal slaying of kids, who were between the ages of 2 and 14.
After deliberating for three days, a jury has found mommy blogger Lacey Spears guilty of second-degree murder in the fatal sodium poisoning of her 5-year-old son, Garnett-Paul Spears. According to prosecuting lawyers, the boy's sodium levels rose to a dangerous level with no medical explanation. His condition worsened to a swollen brain, seizures and, ultimately, death.
The single mother, who moved from Chestnut Ridge, New York, to Kentucky after her son passed away, reportedly administered toxic levels of salt through a feeding tube. Evidence in the case also showed that she had researched "dangers of high sodium" several days before Garnett-Paul was admitted to hospital.
