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Pleas Court Judge Robert Ringland found her not guilty by reason of insanity.
Brenda Drayton
In 2008, Brenda Dayton was accused of strangling her 2-year-old daughter. Her
infant son had passed away from malnutrition ten years earlier. The 29-year-old
Drayton had been previously hospitalized for her delusions, especially one
regarding snakes in her body. Her reasoning for killing her daughter was her
belief that she was the “Devil’s baby.”
Who was Brenda Drayton?
Brenda, who was 29-years-old and diagnosed with bipolar disorder and
hospitalized in 1997, had a history of emotional and psychological disturbances.
Her case manager reported that Drayton was delusional, even going so far as to
believing there were snakes in her body. Ten years before she murdered her
daughter, her 6-week-old son had died of dehydration and malnutrition.
The Murder
Brenda, who was on medication for her various psychological problems,
allegedly stopped the meds when she was five months pregnant. She had been
diagnosed for bipolar disorder, amongst other things, and had a reported IQ of

55. (Knight)
    Drayton suffocated her young daughter and then left her body in a cupboard, a
    place she liked to play. She then allowed her son to discover her daughter’s
    corpse. During the trial, Circuit Judge Richard Yuille told her she’d left her son
    with “one horrible memory”. (Janczewski, 2008)
    Despite her multiple diagnoses in regards to her mental health, it was determined
    that she was still accountable for her actions. She was sentenced to twenty years
    in prison.
    Marybeth Tinning
    The case of Marybeth Tinning involves not just one murder, but many murders,
    strung out across a period of several years. By the time she was arrested, she’d
    seen nine of her children die.
    The Children
    Marybeth Tinning was a housewife and former school bus operator. On February
    5, 1986, she was arrested and charged with the murder of her 4-month-old
    daughter, Tami Lynne. What eventually drew attention to Tinning was how
    she’d come to be a familiar sight in her local trauma center, a place where she’d
    arrive in a hysterical state with either one of her children. On more than one
    occasion, the child had been dead. From January 3, 1972 (when her daughter
    Jennifer died) until December 20, 1985, when Tami Lynne died, all nine of her
    children had died suddenly without any rational explanation.
    Marybeth was once a nurse's aide at Ellis Hospital in Schenectady, New York.
    She met Joe Tinning on a blind date in 1963 and they married two years later.
    Although they appeared to be an average couple, the one thing that set them
    apart was that their children died at an alarming rate.
    Some people did question the multiple deaths and made official reports but as
    there was never any decisive evidence to point to anything being wrong, no
    charges were ever brought against the couple.
    On January 3, 1972, daughter Jennifer died of meningitis in the hospital.
    Jennifer, who’d been sick at birth, was only a few months old and hadn’t been
    taken home at all. Marybeth’s father had just recently passed away and it’s
    possible that the two sudden deaths could have exacerbated Marybeth’s mental
    distress.
    Less than three weeks after Jennifer died, 2-year-old Joseph Jr. was taken to the
    hospital with reported seizures. He was sent home after doctors couldn’t find
    anything wrong. However, when Marybeth brought him back a few hours later,
    he had died. She reported finding him in bed, blue, with the sheets tangled
    around him. An autopsy was not performed.
    About six weeks later she returned again, this time with 4-year-old Barbara.
    Again she told the hospital that one of her children was having convulsions.
    Still, despite the fact that Tinning showed no outward concerns over her
    daughter’s health, she insisted on taking her home rather than listening to the
    doctor’s advice and leaving her there for observation. Marybeth returned hours
    later with an unconscious Barbara, who passed away in the hospital. The cause
    of death was unknown, although Reyes Syndrome was suspected.
    A year later, Marybeth had a fourth child: a son, Timothy. She brought him back
    to the hospital three weeks after taking him home. He was already dead when
    she arrived. She stated that she’d found him unconscious in his crib and the
    official cause of death was SIDS –Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.
    Two years later, Marybeth had Nathan. He was described as blond, beautiful,
    and perfect. When he was five months old, she showed up at the hospital. He had
    died. Out of the five children that had died, four of them had been in her care
    when it happened. People were understandably stunned.
    In 1978, the Tinnings adopted a child and got pregnant with one of their own
    again. The Tinnings adopted Michael in August and gave birth to Mary Frances
    at the end of October. The following January Mary Frances had a seizure
    (according to her mother) and was taken across the street to St. Clare’s ER. She
    was revived there, but died on February 20th. When Marybeth entered the
    hospital, she was carrying her lifeless child. She claimed to have found the baby
    unconscious, much like she’d claimed to find the others. Again, it was labeled as
    SIDS, a cause of death by exclusion.
    After Mary Frances’ death, Marybeth got pregnant again and gave birth on
    November 19th to Jonathan. Michael, their adopted child, appeared to be
    healthy. Still, in March 1980 she arrived at the hospital with a cataleptic
    Jonathan. He was revived, but this time sent to Boston where experts could
    examine him. With nothing conclusive found, he was sent home, only to die a
    few days later.
    About a year later, Marybeth took 2-year-old adopted Michael to his doctor. She
    informed the doctor that she’d had trouble waking Michael up that morning. He
    was unconscious as she held him. His official cause of death was viral
    pneumonia, even though there technically wasn’t really enough present to have
    caused his death. In the past, doctors had theorized that the Tinnings were
    passing on a genetic disorder to their children, thus causing their deaths. Now
    that theory was moot.
    Suspicion
    Suspicion was pointed at Marybeth. Some of the nurses couldn’t understand why
    Marybeth hadn’t taken Michael across the street to the hospital after she’d first
    woken him up that morning and found him listless. Instead, she’d waited and
    taken him to the doctor. The fact that she’d waited hours to take her other
    children to the doctor was also suspicious.
    Marybeth gave birth to Tami Lynn on August 22, 1985. In December, Cynthia
    Walter, a neighbor and nurse, went shopping with Marybeth. When they
    returned, Cynthia stated that when she had held Tami Lynn that Marybeth had
    asked her to give her back. (Mahoney, 1987) Later that night a frantic Marybeth
    called Cynthia, who rushed over, but on arriving she found Tami on her
    changing table, purple and unresponsive. No cause of death was determined, but
    the suspicion grew.
    When Cynthia visited the Tinning household the next day to check on Joe and
    Marybeth, she found them eating breakfast, not doubled-over in grief like she
    expected. (Mahoney, 1987) Back at her apartment, after the funeral, Walter
    testified that Marybeth was, “Smiling… eating, conversing with everyone there”
    and that she "didn't appear to be upset." Joe, who appeared unflappable, took
    things in stride. He told a Times Union reporter that, "There were things that
    made me suspicious,” but that he had to “trust [his] wife”. (Wallace, 1986)
    Up to this point, three of the children’s cause of death had been attributed to
    SIDS. Although SIDS is highly misunderstood and research has yet to show a
    specific cause for it, the fact that three children in the same family had died from
    it was a cause for alarm, and perhaps even an impossibility. At first, in the
    Tinning’s case, a genetic problem was suspected but this was finally ruled out
    once Michael died. Reyes Syndrome was suspected as well, since it causes brain
    swelling, but the children hadn’t had any perceivable symptoms which Reyes
    usually causes.
    According to Schenectady Police Chief Richard E. Nelson, at the time of Tami’s
    death, "Just about everyone who came into contact with the family, the hospital,
    doctors, social service workers, was suspicious”. (Wallace, 1986) Since the
    cause of death of the children couldn’t be determined, and since there was a lack
    of communication between the different parties concerned, it was difficult to
    pursue any clear-cut investigation.
    Marybeth was interviewed by investigators Imfeld, Karas, and William Barnes.
    Barnes had known Marybeth since she was a child. At first, she denied doing
    anything wrong. She did, over time, eventually confess to hurting Tami Lynne,
    Nathan and Timothy. Marybeth confessed to smothering these three with a
    pillow because she “wasn’t a good mother”. (Tinning)
    When Joe was confronted with the news from Marybeth herself, he stated that he
    had “Withdrawn into himself” and that he was “Hearing but…wasn't reacting".
    (Smith, 1987) A 36-page statement was compiled and in it Marybeth stated that
    on the night of Tami’s death she had smothered her with the pillow to keep her
    from crying. When asked why she killed her, she claimed it was because she
    cried a lot and this made Marybeth feel unfit as a mother.
    Diane Downs
    One of the most famous cases of maternal filicide was turned into a successful
    book, a made-for-TV movie, starring Farrah Fawcett, and even spawned several
    television specials. Diane Downs of Oregon claimed a carjacker attacked her and
    her three children, killing her 7-year-old daughter in 1983. However, it was later
    determined that she’d shot her children and herself and caused the death of her
    daughter.
    The Murders
    Diane, an attractive woman who was known for being both seductive and
    manipulative, would consistently get in the way of her own murder investigation
    and ultimately caused her own arrest and implication in the death of her child. In
    1983, three of Diane’s children were shot in the family car: Cheryl, Stephen, and
    Christie. Cheryl died. Diane, herself, was also shot in the forearm. She was able
    to drive them to the hospital.
    Diane claimed that a “shaggy-haired” man had flagged them down in their car
    and made them stop on the dark, quiet road. On demanding her car keys she’d
    thrown them out the window, he’d then shot her and the children and run away.
    Not many people bought the story, especially when they had the chance to
    consider what happened afterwards.
    It would be Det. Doug Welch’s first homicide investigation. He entered the
    hospital to interview Diane and said that Diane stated that when she refused to
    let the carjacker have her keys he, “Reached in and shot the sleeping kids”.
    (Dooley, 2010) Still, Welch had trouble believing the story, saying, “There were
    a number of things which didn’t make sense.” (Dooley, 2010)
    Diane was arrested nine months after the shooting.
    The Trial