by Gregg Olsen
In 1989, our family got a call from the assistant DA in Amarillo who was an old friend of my parents from Dumas. He said that a lady named Tanya Reid was on trial in Des Moines, Iowa for child endangerment, and the DA up there wanted to talk to them. When asked why, he said that she was the same girl who was with me the night I quit breathing. Apparently the same thing happened to her son – several times…
The mystery was finally solved. We are pretty sure that Tanya caused my apnea somehow. After we found out about the first trial my parents sat me down to talk to me about it. I told them that I had forgiven her. I don’t know if it was my childhood innocence or the Holy Spirit or both working in my heart. But I felt no bitterness towards her. I remember just feeling sorry for her. They said she had Munchausen’s Syndrome by proxy. In other words she hurt her children to get attention. She had a disorder just like me, but her disorder was mental, and mine is physical. To this day I have no anger in my heart towards her.
After I tell people this story, their first reaction is always this. “How come you are not angry??” To that I always tell them that if I had any bitterness towards Tanya, it would only hurt me. There is no point. There is nothing I can do about it. I can only look ahead and make the best out of what I can do NOW.”
AT THE CONCLUSION OF HER FIRST MURDER TRIAL, I met with Tanya Reid while conducting research for my book, Cruel Deception.
Later I wrote:
In many ways I am torn by Tanya Thaxton Reid, a woman who needs help, but cannot allow herself to seek it. As she sat shaking in the Deaf Smith County Jail after the murder verdict came in, I could see tears that were undeniably real. I told her I didn’t think she meant to kill Morgan, no matter what actually transpired that frigid, snowy day in Hereford.
“Thank you, thank you… I appreciate that,” she answered, brightening a bit. I felt such sorrow for her. I wanted to reach under the pass through screen and pat her hand and tell her how sorry I was. So sorry for her family and children, especially her children. Was this the role others had assumed? Is this what she wanted? I’ll never know.
Photo Archive IV
Top: Tanya Thaxton was the youngest of four daughters born to John and Wanda Thaxton of Dumas, Texas.
Left: Tanya studied nursing, a fact that would later play into the events of her crime.
Right: Melodee Hanes, the Iowa prosecutor who brought justice to the Texas case involving Morgan's murder.
Baby Morgan... lost forever, but never forgotten by the people of the Texas Panhandle.
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