The Lone Star Love Triangle: True Crime

by Gregg Olsen

  Callie would later try to describe the boy’s state. “He was inconsolable. . . . You can’t make him stop, it doesn’t matter what you do. It’s almost like being hysterical.” The nurse scrutinized his mother. Tanya Reid was a short, pleasant woman with neatly done dark hair and dressed in a simple pullover top and jeans. She was very calm as she stood talking to Drs. Colman and Zoucha and described what had happened at home. The scene seemed odd to Callie, who had worked at the hospital for seventeen years and thought she had seen it all. Something was wrong with the picture.

  “If it was my kid doing that I wouldn’t be able to stand that for very long. But she was over in the corner talking to the doctor, and she just kept going on and on with this long detailed history using all the appropriate phrases, technical terms, long medical names—I mean, I wouldn’t have been able to have remembered them,” she would later say. Tanya seemed oblivious to Michael’s caterwauling. Never once did she step over to soothe her son. “It didn’t seem to bother her. She was just over there chatting with the doctors.”

  Later, none of the nurses could recall any details about the little boy’s father. Jim Reid was there, nurses said, but he stayed out of the fray and let his wife handle everything. The atmosphere in the ER took a decided turn when Dr. Zoucha, the pediatrician running the show that night, barreled out of Trauma 1 and slammed the little patient’s charts against a countertop. An attractive woman and usually a calming influence, Dr. Zoucha was not given to such outbursts of emotion.

  She was a healer, not an antagonizer. But she was furious. Her words shocked.

  “She’s smothering that kid!”

  Pediatric resident Colman, also taken back by his colleague’s anger, nodded in agreement. “Yes,” he said, recalling his earlier suspicions, “this has been going on way too long.”

  A call was made to the Iowa Department of Human Services for a child protective investigator. The little boy screaming in the ER was a victim of a rare form of child abuse. The alleged abuser was his mother. Both Dr. Colman and Dr. Zoucha believed Michael suffered from Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy. They suspected his mother was smothering him because of her own need for attention, specifically from medical staff.

  Nurse Sandquist was horrified and intrigued. She had never seen an MSBP case before. The veteran nurse drew closer to the patient and his mother as she searched for clues that could reveal what had happened that afternoon. Reporting an allegation of child abuse was serious. Details were a necessity. Written backup would be critical.

  In addition to his incessant screams, something else about the supposed seizure patient appeared noteworthy. Brandon Michael Reid had four scratches on his cheek—parallel abrasions that looked as if they could have been made by fingernails. Two were deep enough to bead minute rows of blood. Since the scratches were small, it suggested to Callie they had been made by the child. His lower left eyelid was also flushed with the subtle purple of a fresh bruise.

  Tanya Reid, seemingly oblivious to the turmoil brewing around her, accosted the nurse and held out her right index finger. It, too, was scratched. At the nail bed it bled slightly. “I hurt my finger,” she said. “Can I get a bandage?”

  The little boy had been admitted to the hospital by the time a child protective investigator arrived, about two-thirty that afternoon. Investigator Mark Gillespie had been notified by pager and made the trip to the hospital as soon as he could. Gillespie first met with Dr. Zoucha, who filled him in on some of the boy’s medical history. She told him Michael had been admitted to Blank several times, most recently about three weeks prior.

  Dr. Zoucha pointed out the scratches on the boy and his mother. She told the investigator the scratches might be a result of Michael’s attempt to stop his mother from suffocating him. While they were admitting the child for observation of any seizures, it was primarily a means of protecting the boy. Foster care, she said, was the long-term answer. “I have no doubt,” she said, “that the mother is trying to suffocate the child and the child is in danger.”

  Dr. Robert Colman, the pediatrics resident who was among the first to suggest Michael Reid was the victim of Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy, was every mother’s dream of a pediatrician. Sympathetic blue eyes, ready smile, and gentle manner conveyed a genuine love for children. Investigator Gillespie met with the young doctor for a briefing before interviewing Jim and Tanya Reid, who still had no idea about the allegations. Dr. Colman advised the investigator of some of the background of the Reids, including how they had moved a number of times and Michael had been to numerous hospitals for testing, most recently the Mayo Clinic.

  “Mayo reportedly declined to do any testing,” he said, “indicating there was nothing wrong with the child.”

  Mark Gillespie sat down to take it all in, filling his notebook with information on a condition about which he had known little. Then it was time to see the Reids. It was 4:00 p.m. and Michael had calmed down in his room on the third floor. He was outfitted in flimsy hospital pajamas colored with some obscure cartoon character, and blue fleecy slippers were by his feet. Soon he would sleep.

  Jim Reid stood alone, stunned and mute when the abuse investigator identified himself and stated the purpose of his visit. Michael’s father’s face exhibited the affect that Mark Gillespie had seen all too often, a combination of shock and indignation.

  There must be some mistake.

  Jim immediately picked up the phone to call Tanya, who, he explained, had gone home with their daughter Carolyn to change clothes. His voice was hushed, his words sparse. “Tanya, there’s a man here to talk to us. They are accusing us of smothering Michael.”

  Tanya started to shake as she told her husband that she’d be right over. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “I went totally to pieces,” she said later. “I was mad and scared.” Tanya left Carolyn at Staci’s and made her way to Michael’s hospital room to take a seat next to Jim as they faced the investigator. She could explain everything. The interview would last forty-five minutes.

  “We didn’t know what to think,” Tanya said later of the allegations and the interview. “We didn’t have anything to hide. We willingly talked to Mark. I told him I was mad, and he said he understood. This was an ordeal for us.” Tanya called her sister Rodena to talk about the allegations and about getting an attorney. Tanya was upset, but she was sure she’d be vindicated. This was all a mistake, after all. It would blow over. In case it didn’t, the Thaxton family called on Esther Hayward, a Dallas attorney and friend of Rodena and her husband’s, to make inquiries about finding a good lawyer in Des Moines. Esther reported back that it was Bill Kutmus’s name that came up most often. Tanya also tried to seek help from a member of an association she had seen on the “700 Club” television program. The group, Victims of Child Abuse Laws (VOCAL), had formed to clear the sullied names of parents falsely accused of child abuse. Tanya related how she was uncomfortable with the Iowa doctors and was convinced they were on some kind of child abuse witch-hunt. But because of the early stage of the investigation, the VOCAL member was unable to help. The Reids were on their own.

  Jim Reid stood firm with his wife in her denial that she could have done anything to hurt their son or daughter. He proclaimed great certainty that in the end Tanya would be vindicated. He held no doubts that she was an attentive mother. He said later, “She’s always real careful about how the kids look and how they dress and how they act and tries to teach them right from wrong and takes time to participate in their activities.”

  OTHER HOSPITALS SET UP HIDDEN VIDEO CAMERAS to see if a parent interfered with their child’s treatment. Cameras had caught mothers – and more rarely, dads – putting a pillow over a child’s face, or contaminating urine or vomit samples with their own blood. One mom repeatedly rubbed a noxious oven cleaner all over her child’s back to produce a ghastly rash.

  But the Iowa hospitals treating Michael were worried about the invasion of privacy and the headlines that might result if the public found out they wer
e surreptitiously spying on parents.

  Investigators and physicians agreed that the only fail-safe way to establish a MSBP diagnosis with Michael was to separate mother and son. If his “spells” stopped, the diagnosis could be made. But how could they get the boy away from his mother?

  Investigators with the Polk County district attorney’s office began piecing together Tanya’s history. The more they learned about her, the more they saw how she met the criteria of a MSBP parent:

  • Tanya worked in health care.

  • She was alone with Morgan and Michael whenever they had a seizure or “spell”.

  • The “spells” only happened on certain days and certain times of day.

  • Tanya lied and told investigators that a physician had witnessed one – he hadn’t.

  • Tanya wanted her child to be at the hospital, and she was never far from their side.

  • She seemed “excited” by the attention.

  • Her husband was often absent from the home and also never witnessed a “spell”.

  Were there any clues in Tanya’s own background? Her mother, Wanda, had health problems when Tanya was young. Tanya liked the attention and felt loved when her mother was sick or when she was sick. She remembered a time when her mother was hospitalized. An aunt took Tanya, just a preschooler, to the hospital to have a small cyst removed from under her left arm. She was terrified of the rubber ether mask pressed against her face, but was left with a warm memory from the experience. “They put me in mother’s room,” Tanya remembered later, “and mother picked me up and moved me in bed with her. She held me next to her for hours and hours.”

  Bad luck and freak accidents plagued Tanya. She stubbed her toe and it became badly infected. While playing hide-and-seek one summer afternoon, Tanya crashed her left arm through a plate glass window, severing an artery. Her mother wondered if her daughter was born unlucky. The girl had a knack for caring for wounded animals. One of her sisters said Tanya “always wanted the miracle of saving a life,” and as a child tried to save wounded birds.

  TO DETERIMINE IF TANYA REID WAS HARMING HER SON MICHAEL, investigators had to look closely at Morgan Renee’s death, several years before. Maybe what they learned would help them protect Michael.

  Although Polk County assistant county attorney Melodee Hanes had read that it was nearly impossible to prove that a mother suffered from MSBP syndrome, she set her sights on Tanya. She spent months hunting down nearly every doctor who had seen Tanya’s children over the years.

  She received a copy of Morgan Renee Reid’s autopsy report from Northwest Texas Hospital in Amarillo, a report that concluded there was “no evidence of child abuse.” But pathologists in Iowa discovered that an x-ray taken during the autopsy revealed that Morgan did not die of SIDS but showed brain damage consistent with being shaken violently.

  Hanes tracked down the pathologist who had conducted Morgan’s autopsy. He had left Texas and was practicing in Arkansas. He explained that he wrote that there was no evidence of abuse because he had found no bruises or fractures. He admitted he had never heard of Shaken Baby Syndrome.

  A hospital trauma team concluded that Michael Reid was in imminent danger and that it was a case of MSBP. He should be removed from the home. They decided Carolyn Reid was safe because she was old enough to speak up if she was harmed.

  That’s when two detectives and a juvenile court officer drove to an Urbandale day care center to take Michael into custody. They felt as if they were just in time.

  As soon as Michael was removed from Tanya’s care, his health was fine. Tanya said Michael must have outgrown the spells.

  IN FEBRUARY, 1989 TANYA THAXTON REID WAS CONVICTED OF felony abuse of Michael. She was sentenced to ten years in the women’s prison in Mitchellville, Iowa. She never appealed, but maintained her innocence. Jim and Tanya divorced, in part so he would get custody of Carolyn and Michael, and he remarried.

  On December 13, 1993 a Texas jury found Tanya guilty of first degree murder for the death of Morgan Renee. She was sentenced to 62 years in prison. Two years later, an appellate court overturned her conviction. She returned to her hometown of Dumas, Texas and worked at a McDonalds. In 1996, Tanya Thaxton Reid, now thirty-eight years old, was re-tried, turned down a plea deal, and was sentenced to serve 40 years in a women’s prison in Gatesville, Texas.

  She was paroled in 2008. She had hoped to move to California and start a new life, but she lives where she spent her childhood and much of her life as a mother, in Texas.

  Her ex-husband and daughter have stood by her. Tanya’s son, Michael, is one of the few family members with no contact with Tanya. He reportedly suffered permanent hearing loss which he believes was caused by his mother’s abuse.

  The question of how far back Tanya’s compulsion to harm her children, and bask in the attention, went was answered in part during her first trial when prosecutors found what they considered “the smoking gun.” It was a story that Tanya, her parents and her siblings neglected to share with doctors or the police.

  In 1974, when Tanya Thaxton was seventeen years old, she was babysitting four-month-old Scotty Simmons while his parents attended a church meeting. It wasn’t her first time babysitting Scotty.

  During the evening, Scotty quit breathing. It was before the 9-1-1 system existed, so Tanya called an operator, who called the police, who sent an ambulance.

  Scott was revived but was never the same. Although he suffered brain damage from lack of oxygen and has cerebral palsy, Scotty excelled in school and graduated with honors.

  Both Tanya and a police officer were honored for helping Scotty. Tanya was named the recipient of the Ladies’ Chamber of Commerce Good Neighbor Award. A presentation was held at a restaurant.

  The newspaper ran two articles. The headline of the first was “Police officer saves life of city infant.” The second was: “Quick reaction to emergency: Tanya Thaxton, babysitter, receives good neighbor award.”

  Tanya said the Scott Simmons incident was a turning point in her life, but not for the reason people think. "It just amazes me that people are now saying that the Good Neighbor Award made me want to kill my own children," she said. "It helped persuade me to get into medical care. At the time, I couldn't help that baby. I didn't know how to do CPR. I just sat there, helpless, until the police came. And from then on, I wanted to be prepared."

  She couldn’t believe that the prosecutor would dredge up the story. “They said I did this because I wanted to get attention; then what caused me to do it in the first place? I didn’t know I was going to get the Good Neighbor Award. We only kept it for a month. They engrave your name in one of the little squares, you kept it a month, and you had to give it back. It’s not like I got a big trophy I keep in my house.”

  MUNCHAUSEN SYNDROME BY PROXY IS NOW called Factitious Disorder Imposed on Another. In the thirty years since nine-month-old Morgan Renee Reid died, physicians have learned more about MSBP. It most often occurs in mothers, although it can occur in fathers, who intentionally harm their children in order to receive attention. It can also show up in people who take care of the elderly, the disabled, and pets.

  The diagnosis is not given to the victim, but rather to the perpetrator.

  In 2007, Scott Simmons, the infant Tanya Thaxton Reid babysat when she was seventeen years old, posted a letter about his life on the Internet.

  “My name is Scott Simmons, and I have cerebral palsy. Cerebral palsy is a broad term that covers anybody who has lost brain cells due to a lack of oxygen. Most people get CP during childbirth, but my story is a bit different.

  For the first four months of my life I was a healthy baby. I was born July 1974 in Amarillo Texas, and my parents lived in a small town about an hour north called Dumas. One night in October while my parents were at a church function, I mysteriously quit breathing while a highly recommended babysitter named Tanya Thaxton was watching me….

  The next several years were the hardest for me and my parents. Doctors performed
numerous tests on me to figure out what caused me to quit breathing, but they couldn’t find any answers. I had several mild and severe seizures, and I spent many hours in physical therapy. And thru all this, I still didn’t realize that anything was different about me. As far as I knew, I was as normal as any of my friends were. In fact, I thought my physical therapy was playtime!! When I was 6, I even got involved in little league sports. I played little league T-ball. (Catcher was my favorite position because I got to put the ball back on the tee when kids missed it and knocked it off.) I also played soccer and ran track. I was very competitive, and I hated to lose.

  Around that time I began to notice that there was something a little different about me. Even though I practiced as much as possible, I wasn’t improving. I couldn’t understand why. I also couldn’t understand why I had so much trouble staying on a bike when all my friends were learning to ride without training wheels. Many of the kids in elementary school poked fun at my posture and the way I held my hands. It was so frustrating. Why couldn’t I get it right?...

  My parents thought that it was time to tell me what I had and what had happened to me when I was a baby. After they told me everything I remember feeling a sense of relief that I finally knew why I struggled so much, but I also remember wishing that it had never happened.

  My parents made sure that every other part of my life was as normal as possible. They had me focus on things that I could do instead of things I couldn’t do. I always loved music, and I loved to sing. When I was eight they took me out of sports and I started piano lessons and I sang in a children’s church choir. My piano teacher told me that I had l almost perfect pitch!!

  Around that same time I accepted Jesus as my savior and was baptized. I grew up in the church, and had always heard about God’s unconditional love. I felt like I was old enough to accept it and to understand it. What I didn’t understand at the time was that God had a plan for me…