BERNADETTE’S BIRTH
She left school and began to train as a Licensed Vocational Nurse. A month into her training – on 25 November 1977 – she and Jim married, though she’d later admit that she was already having second thoughts, saying ‘Daddy was domineering, then I went into a domineering marriage.’ Yet, instead of seeking solace in the nursing work that she professed to love, she quit and took a job at the factory where Jim was a supervisor. She worked there for just over a year before becoming pregnant. Again, she apparently had fainting spells which ensured that her co-workers made a fuss over her and that her boss allowed her to take early maternity leave. Bernadette (a pseudonym to protect her identity) was born on 15 October 1980 and was a beautiful healthy girl.
Fortunately, the Reids were living close to Tanya’s parents at the time of Bernadette’s birth so she got lots of attention and support. Bernadette was a colicky baby, but otherwise fine.
MORGAN’S DEATH
By the time the Reids had their second daughter, on 17 May 1983, they had moved to Illinois where Tanya was unemployed and bored. They called the little girl Morgan Renee. The baby appeared healthy yet in August she apparently had a seizure and Tanya had her admitted, limp and sweating, to hospital where she swiftly revived.
Over the next few weeks, Morgan was readmitted to the children’s ward on an approximately fortnightly basis. The baby would arrive looking blue and breathless but would stabilise quickly in hospital, be kept in for observation for several days and allowed home in good health, only to apparently stop breathing again at home. Nurses noted that Tanya quickly became frustrated with the baby girl, and once saw her slapping her on the leg, though she stopped as soon as she realised that she was being observed.
Tanya had struggled to find common ground with other young mothers in the neighbourhood, but now she regaled them with horror stories of what she’d endured with Morgan, saying that she couldn’t leave the baby alone for even a moment in case she died.
In January 1984, the Reids returned to Texas and Tanya spent a week with relatives, during which time Morgan thrived. But shortly after moving into her new Texan home, she was rushed to hospital, blue-tinged and unresponsive. She quickly recovered but was kept in from 10 – 26 January for observation and tests, after which she was sent home with a clean bill of health.
But, on 6 February, the former Licensed Vocational Nurse called the hospital to say that her daughter had endured yet another attack. They raced the baby to intensive care but she was brain damaged and they reluctantly switched off her life support. The nine-month-old girl laboured for breath until the following day then died. Some of the nurses were in tears but Tanya was dry-eyed.
At the autopsy, the pathologist found bleeding in the baby’s skull, but he wasn’t familiar with Shaken Baby Syndrome. The body bore no external injuries, so he wrote that there was no evidence of child abuse. The authorities then determined that this was a Sudden Infant Death Syndrome case and Morgan was buried in Texas in the family plot.
MATTHEW’S SUFFERING
Tanya continued to tell the regulars at her local church of her loss, that ‘God had taken an innocent child,’ though neighbours were surprised at how often she left her surviving daughter Bernadette with a babysitter. Fifteen months after Morgan’s death, the Reids had a son, Matthew. By now they were living in Illinois and Tanya was again isolated and bored. Three weeks after his birth, she called paramedics and explained that he’d had an apnoea episode (stopped breathing) and that she’d used her nurse’s training to resuscitate him.
Over the next few months she’d claim that he suffered from seizure after seizure. Concerned medics routinely hospitalised the blue-tinged, sweating and panicky baby and Tanya remained at his bedside, talking to doctors, nurses and other patients about her child’s condition. The lonely housewife again had the sympathy and attention that she craved.
It was hard for Tanya to make friends as the family moved around because of Jim’s job. In autumn 1987 they moved to Iowa and she again attempted to befriend other mothers, but her endless chatter and pushy nature was off-putting to most of them. She craved adult conversation and talked non-stop to Jim when he got home from a hard day at the office but he was an introvert who understandably wanted to relax. He later admitted that she was impossible to please, and that he only stayed for the sake of the children, whom he adored. He had no inkling that she might be responsible for their health problems, though they only occurred when he was at work and when there were no other witnesses around.
As the months passed, Tanya continued to phone the Iowa emergency services to say that Matthew was having the same breathing difficulties as his dead sister. By two he could only say a couple of words so had several home visits by educational specialists. But, at two-and-a-half they were able to determine that only his language skills were delayed, that his motor and social skills were normal, so the home visits came to an end.
Tanya was enraged and told everyone that her son needed special attention. She had previously told a paediatrician that her deceased daughter Morgan had suffered from Fragile X syndrome, a genetic condition usually found in boys. She also spoke at length about the various anti-seizure medications that he was on and seemed more interested in talking about medical intervention than about alleviating her child’s distress. Medics noticed that she often tried to keep them talking whilst her toddler son fought for breath.
Within two days of being told that Matthew was functioning normally, Tanya phoned an ambulance to say that he’d stopped breathing and had turned blue. A paramedic entered the house to find her bending over him and apparently giving him mouth to mouth. His lips were violet, yet the paramedic got him breathing almost immediately.
A fortnight later, Tanya phoned the emergency services again saying that Matthew had had another seizure. Again, paramedics arrived to find her apparently giving her son artificial resuscitation but when they moved her out of the way they found that he was breathing of his own accord.
A TERRIFIED CHILD
At the hospital, nurses noted that the little boy seemed afraid of his mother and only ever uttered the words ‘Mum go.’ (A babysitter had noticed that Matthew screamed whenever Tanya was around yet was a relaxed, happy child when she wasn’t there.) This time, doctors were suspicious and asked her if anyone other than herself had witnessed the apnoea episodes. Tanya lied and named several people, saying that she’d give them the address of a doctor who had witnessed an attack, but she never did.
On another occasion, she carried Matthew into hospital and, oblivious to his cries, started to talk in depth about a possible diagnosis. Doctors noticed that he had small scratches on his face which appeared to have been made by his own nails, as if a pillow or hand had been pushed over his face and he’d tried to pull it away. They were baffled as to how he could have seizures when he was on anti-epileptic medication, and began to question Tanya more closely about the events leading up to Matthew’s attacks.
The next time that she called an ambulance, she requested that they take her son to a different hospital. A detective who accompanied paramedics noticed that Tanya was more interested in talking to them than in her son who was lying, gasping for breath, on the ground.
The authorities asked to see the autopsy report for Morgan, Tanya’s dead daughter, and realised that she’d been shaken or slammed against a surface so that the small blood vessels going to her brain had torn and leaked. They now believed that Tanya Reid was a Munchausen’s By Proxy mother who had murdered her second born and might murder her third born any day.
In March of 1988, Matthew was given to foster parents, then to Tanya’s relatives, and began to catch up developmentally. He did not have any seizures and enjoyed good health.
TRIAL
It was February 1989 before Tanya Reid’s trial began in Iowa for abusing Matthew. Medics testified to his numerous hospitalisations, that they’d eventually become afraid to send him home. They described how he was so terrified at seeing
his mother that he’d scream and race away in the opposite direction. Once she had approached whilst he was sitting in a high chair and he’d tried to flip himself over the back of it.
Doctors noted that the little boy only became ill in the daytime when his mother was around or during the specific evenings that his father worked late. The baby monitor showed that he’d never had an apnoea episode during the night when he – and the rest of the family – was asleep. And babies usually stop having apnoea by six months, whereas Matthew was still suffering at 18 months.
Tanya took the stand and suggested that the bleeding around her daughter Morgan’s brain could have been caused during resuscitation attempts, but medics rejected this as an explanation. She was asked if she’d ever had another child stop breathing in her care, other than her own children, and said no. The prosecution then reminded her of how she’d been given a Good Neighbour Award for saving the life of Scotty, the infant that she was babysitting. Tanya muttered that she’d forgotten about the award.
The defence countered that Morgan hadn’t died immediately when her life support machine was switched off. They said that victims of Shaken Baby Syndrome have swollen brains, that they die quickly when taken off a ventilator. They said that both Morgan and Matthew had slightly abnormal brains, suggesting a congenital defect. A psychologist for the defence said that Tanya’s responses to standard psychological tests were normal, that there was no suggestion that she was a MBP case. In contrast, five doctors for the prosecution had said that they believed she was committing MBP crimes.
On 28 April 1989, the judge found her guilty of felony child endangerment of Matthew. She wept as she was sentenced to 10 years in an Iowa women’s prison. Shortly afterwards Jim divorced her – whilst remaining in contact – and got custody of both children. He later remarried. Meanwhile Tanya found love in another woman’s arms.
THE SECOND TRIAL
In December 1993, Tanya Reid went on trial for Morgan’s murder. Again she took the stand in her own defence and again she was found guilty. This time she was sentenced to 62 years, with the proviso that she serve 20 before becoming eligible for parole.
But, in February 1995 the appeals court overturned her murder conviction, arguing that the judge had not proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Tanya killed her daughter with her own hands. The prosecution said that they would retry the case.
In 1996 she was retried at a different venue – Lubbock in Texas – before a jury and found guilty. For the next 12 years she remained behind bars, supported by her extended family though Matthew, who suffers from permanent hearing loss which he believes is due to his mother’s actions, understandably wanted nothing to do with her.
In September 2008 she was paroled and returned to live with her relatives in Texas.
CRUEL DECEPTION
In October of that year, I interviewed top crime author Gregg Olsen who spoke extensively to Tanya Reid and wrote a book about the case, Cruel Deception. Gregg’s other best-selling books include Starvation Heights, Abandoned Prayers, Bitter Almonds, The Confessions of an American Black Widow and If Loving You Is Wrong. More recently, he has ventured into realistic crime fiction with A Cold Dark Place and A Wicked Snow. His website and blog can be found at www.greggolsen.com.
I started off by asking him about why Tanya had insisted on taking the stand to defend herself. Was this an extension of her attention-seeking behaviour or did she truly believe that she could convince a jury of her innocence?
‘Tanya couldn’t stop herself from telling her side of the story during her first two trials,’ Gregg said, ‘Though she wisely stayed off the witness stand during her third time out. She also had a judge, not jury decide the case. Tanya was the kind of woman who seemed so sure that if she could just explain things, tell people, show her love for her children with her tears, they’d conclude she couldn’t possibly have harmed anyone. She saw herself as the quintessential mother. The problem in her testimony wasn’t in her delivery, but in the facts themselves. So yes, I do believe that she enjoyed playing the martyr, the victim of a witch hunt by child abuse professionals who just didn’t like or respect her.’
We discuss his 1993 visit to her in an Iowa prison where she acted as if she’d done nothing wrong. Did she try hard to convince him of her innocence?
‘Really, she was so pathetic that she didn’t have to try to convince me of anything. I told her that I didn’t know what happened, but I was sure that she hadn’t meant to kill her baby. She sobbed and sobbed and thanked me for that – without admitting guilt, of course. We’d talked on the phone and corresponded before I wrote the book and there was never any doubt that she wanted to win me over to her side. She needed an advocate, which, of course I could never be.’
I ask him how she behaved during the visit? Was she just like the girl next door or was there anything unusual about her demeanour? Was she flirtatious? Confrontational? Shy?
‘Again, she cried through most of it. I think she was absolutely stunned that she didn’t get an acquittal. I think she was convinced that the jury would see things her way – that she was a caring mom with children suffering from some strange seizure disorder that had yet to be fully understood by medical authorities. In her shock of the conviction (and her panic over her future), I think I saw a very frightened and remorseful woman. She knew what she did. She probably would have given anything to rewind that part of her life and deal with her compulsion for attention in some other way.’
A PSYCHIATRIC EXPLANATION
Keen to understand more about this perplexing syndrome, I turned to Dr Marc D Feldman, Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at The University of Alabama. Dr Feldman is listed in The Best Doctors in America and the Guide To America’s Top Psychiatrists. He has written several books about his experiences with Munchausen’s and Munchausen’s By Proxy patients, including Patient Or Pretender, The Spectrum Of Factitious Disorders and Playing Sick and has appeared on everything from CNN to Court TV. He maintains a website at www.munchausen.com.
I asked him to describe the worst Munchausen’s By Proxy case that he was aware of in which a mother harmed or killed her children. ‘Probably the worst case of which I am aware is the Marie Noe case in Philadelphia, though it was never formally adjudicated as MBP; that’s because no MBP expert was given the opportunity to review the records or interview Mrs Noe. However, based on the facts of the case as I know them, I do believe it has all the features of MBP.’
Dr Feldman went on to outline the case. ‘Marie Noe had 10 children between 1949 and 1968. Two died without having left the hospital, and there is no suspicion that Mrs Noe was involved in their deaths. However, the remaining eight children died after lifespans ranging from weeks to more than a year, with the deaths being attributed by coroners to various medical ailments that, in retrospect, were not credible. This occurred before there was an awareness of the form of maltreatment called MBP and, indeed, child abuse as a whole was scarcely recognized by the professional and lay communities. There was disbelief that a mother would deliberately act in such a way as to cause harm to her child. This is among the reasons that the remaining eight children died as a result of suffocation by Mrs Noe without her culpability being publicly considered.’
‘In 1998, after a magazine interview by the writer Stephen Fried, who was interested in the serial deaths, Marie Noe finally acknowledged that she had killed at least some of the children, and possibly all. She could never fully put into words why she did what she did, but it is notable that she also had a history of gratuitous lying and falsely claiming multiple sexual assaults that struck people as dubious. She also seemed to enjoy the trappings of the funerals, and these features are consistent with the pursuit of attention and sympathy in many MBP cases. Startlingly, she received no jail time; instead, she was on house arrest for five years (which she violated without consequence) and instructed to cooperate with doctors who would be allowed to interview her. As I noted, no MBP experts were among the selected interviewers. As of this wri
ting, Mrs Noe is alive and still living in her original home in Philadelphia. Her husband, Arthur, affirms her innocence despite her having admitted to the MBP.’
Nine per cent of MBP children die. Do these murderous mothers feel any guilt at this stage or are they too disengaged to have feelings for others? Tanya Reid seems impervious to the fact that she killed one of her children and permanently damaged another and it seems that Marie Noe is equally blasé.
Dr Feldman admits that he’s also found this to be the case. ‘Many of the perpetrators seem to have disengaged from the children they abused, treating them as objects to be manipulated rather than individuals to be nurtured. For this reason, guilt does not seem to be among the common responses to identification and confrontation; rather, they engage in a pervasive and often entrenched denial of their culpability, including the fatal abuse of the child.’
So what did he make of these MBP mothers who induced repeated symptoms in one or more children yet let another child develop naturally, such as Tanya Reid who repeatedly harmed Morgan and Matthew but spared Bernadette, her oldest child?
The psychiatrist explained: ‘It’s true in all forms of abuse that a mother may target all of her children, or only one. There may have been a failure of mother-infant bonding for various reasons in that case, or the mother may have become more needy and attention-seeking as the number of children increased, thus targeting the youngest, and most vulnerable, child. I have not come across cases in which the younger children in the family are spared while older ones are abused; instead, the reverse is true in those cases in which only one child is victimized.’
Parents Who Kill--Shocking True Stories of the World's Most Evil Parents Page 9
