Parents Who Kill--Shocking True Stories of the World's Most Evil Parents

by Carol Anne Davis

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  MONEY FOR NOTHING

  Loving parents often describe their children as priceless – but sociopathic parents think nothing of insuring their offspring and murdering them for financial gain. There’s often a dual motive in these cases, with the father wanting to fund a more hedonistic lifestyle and resenting the time that his wife spends with the children. Or, if she’s an ex-wife, he’s motivated by both the desire for money and revenge.

  SHANE GOODE

  On the eve of Michael Shane Goode’s 16th birthday in 1977 – he liked to be known by his middle name of Shane – his 10-year-old stepsister died, having spent six weeks in hospital due to a horrific car accident. This wasn’t the only tragedy to befall the Goodes, as many years later one of his stepbrothers would hang himself following a failed marriage. Though handsome and slimly built, Shane had little self-esteem.

  His first marriage in 1981 to his high school sweetheart ended in divorce after six years when he hit her so hard that he perforated her eardrum. Their daughter Tiffany was three at the time. The following year he met a bookkeeper called Annette (who had a daughter from a previous marriage) and convinced her that his first wife had been difficult and was to blame for the break-up of the relationship. Annette and Shane soon married, but none of his family attended the ceremony in Pasadena, Texas, though they lived nearby.

  From the onset of the marriage, Shane was moody, controlling and incredibly jealous of Annette’s friends. He was a postal carrier by day, but spent his weekends with the National Guard, a kind of territorial army: he told other members that he was prepared to die for his country and that he knew how to kill people and get away with it.

  He was always short of money so arranged for his brother-in-law Steven (Annette’s brother) to steal Shane’s sports car and sell it. No one else in the family knew anything about this. Shane netted insurance money of almost $14,000, enough to pay off his debts, and for a few weeks he seemed more relaxed and amicable then he returned to being his usual changeable self.

  FATHERHOOD

  Annette became pregnant early in the marriage and Shane persuaded her to have an abortion as he wasn’t ready to be a father for a second time. But the marriage remained volatile and he left her and set up home alone. However, the couple occasionally reconciled when they were feeling lonely, and Annette got pregnant yet again. He begged her to have another abortion as he was already struggling to pay maintenance for his existing daughter, Tiffany, but she refused. Enraged, he walked out on her, shouting that he wanted nothing to do with the impending birth.

  The baby was born on 27 August 1991 and christened Katherine Renee Goode, though she would always be known by her middle name. By now Annette had realised that her life was better without Shane, and she didn’t initially tell him that he had a daughter, but she did file for divorce.

  As part of the divorce petition, Annette’s attorney requested that Shane pay maintenance for baby Renee. Shane resented the request and retorted that the little girl wasn’t his and he became even more embittered when the courts insisted that he take a paternity test. His rage built when the DNA test proved that he was the father and he was ordered to pay child support. He was worried that he’d have to sell his beloved pickup truck to afford the maintenance payments, but fortunately his father agreed to lend him $5,000.

  When Renee was 18 months old, Shane took out a life insurance policy on her for $50,000 and one for the same amount on his older daughter, Tiffany. He didn’t tell Annette about this. When his girlfriend Sunny, who he was living with, overheard an answering machine message from the insurance company and questioned him, he said that he was thinking of taking out medical insurance on the little girl. Sunny understandably wondered why he’d insure a child that he had never seen.

  Shane now decided that he wanted to have contact visits with his daughter, though he admitted to his girlfriend that this was more to annoy his ex-wife than because he wanted to form a relationship with the 18-month-old. The law was on his side, so Annette reluctantly gave him access to their child.

  Over the next few months he took out his mood swings, and resentment at having to pay maintenance, on the little girl. She would return from a visit looking upset and would show no interest in her toys for the next few hours, sitting and staring into space. When she was two years old and unsettled during a sleepover at his home, he showed no empathy and spanked her for getting out of bed.

  Meanwhile, Shane’s first wife was becoming increasingly perturbed at the way he was treating their eight-year-old, Tiffany. She told her mother that her father had dressed her up in adult clothing and makeup and taken her to a nightclub where they had danced together. When confronted, Shane made light of the incident.

  But, increasingly dissatisfied with his relationship, he brooded over his life and ran up a huge telephone bill by calling sex chat lines. He knew that he’d have to pay maintenance cheques for Renee for another 16 years whilst his debts mounted. But if she died…

  MURDER

  On 22 January 1994, he invited his firstborn daughter Tiffany, Michelle (Annette’s 12-year-old daughter from her first marriage) and two-and-a-half-year-old Renee to a slumber party at his parents’ house. The following morning, Michelle found the toddler lying motionless under her sleeping bag with liquid seeping from her mouth. She had been dead for several hours as rigor mortis had already begun to set in. Police arrived to find Shane rocking his dead daughter in his arms but they noticed that he wasn’t tearful and that his subsequent statement was similarly emotionless. His girlfriend Sunny was so troubled by his callousness that she would later testify for the prosecution.

  An autopsy showed lung congestion and bloody froth, suggestive of asphyxiation. But the pathologist’s report said that the manner of death was undetermined, and Renee’s body was released for burial.

  After the funeral, Annette and her mother continued to protest to the authorities that Shane had murdered the little girl. He was still awaiting the insurance money because the coroner hadn’t yet completed the paperwork, something which often takes months.

  A female detective investigated Shane Goode and became convinced that he was guilty. She persuaded the authorities to exhume Renee and, during the second autopsy, the pathologist cut through the muscles and removed the diaphragm so that he could examine the back of the chest wall. This revealed haemorrhaging which must have been caused by extreme force applied to the toddler’s abdomen for at least five minutes. In other words, she had been squeezed to death.

  TRIAL

  At Shane Goode’s trial, the defence said that Renee had died from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) and that the $50,000 insurance policy which Shane had taken out on her life was to have been used for her college education. The prosecution countered that the second autopsy showed trauma to the child and therefore she hadn’t been a SIDS victim. The doctor who had performed the second autopsy used a life-sized doll to demonstrate how Renee Goode had been squeezed to death. Brain death would have occurred in approximately five minutes, though it might have been ten minutes or more before cardiac arrest.

  Annette took the stand, telling how, after her daughter’s death, she’d asked Shane if he had additional insurance on the two-and-a-half-year-old and he’d denied it. He had a small insurance policy that he’d taken out at work which she already knew about.

  Shane Goode took the stand, looking and sounding confidant. He said that his second wife and his ex-girlfriend Sunny, who had both testified against him, were bitter that the relationships had broken down, that this was their motivation for painting him as money-obsessed and uncaring. But he had to admit that he’d had debts which he was desperate to pay off at the time that Renee died – outstanding household bills, car payments, loan repayments, child maintenance arrears and divorce attorneys’ fees.

  He spoke emotionlessly of how Michelle had told him that Renee wasn’t moving, said that he had picked the child up and noticed that she was cold and stiff and had purplish
discolouration on one side of her face.

  The jury were out for three hours then returned with a guilty verdict. Goode remained impassive, even when Annette read out a victim impact statement describing their daughter as bright, cheerful, lovable, energetic and affectionate, a girl who ‘could have been anything: a teacher, doctor, lawyer, even an astronaut.’

  CONFESSION

  The child killer began serving his life sentence in an Amarillo jail and appeared to adjust quickly to prison life. A year and a half after the murder he wrote a letter to Annette confessing his guilt. He said that, though he hadn’t carried out the murder in the way that the court described it, he had killed her and that it was a cowardly and selfish thing to do. He wrote, somewhat elliptically, that he had convinced himself the murder was the only way out. But he played down the financial motive, saying that he’d acted out of bitterness at the ending of their relationship. He added that he’d found religion and that his God had forgiven him.

  STEPHEN VAN DER SLUYS

  Raised as a Jehovah’s Witness, Stephen married another Witness in September 1974, when he was 22. His bride, Jane, was only 18 and completely devoted to him. The couple started their married life living with relatives in Syracuse, New York. Though the new husband boasted that he could play football at a professional level, he mainly lived off welfare. (This is unusual amongst Jehovah’s Witnesses who prefer to support each other rather than seek state help.) He loved expensive clothes and flashy cars but made no attempt to work for them, and such leech-like behaviour is one of the signs of a psychopath.

  HEATH’S DEATH

  Eight months after their wedding, the Van Der Sluys’ son Heath was born, a healthy, happy baby. Stephen seemed attached to his son but complained about how much time Jane spent with the infant and said that they didn’t have fun as a couple anymore. Yet, early the following year, he got Jane pregnant again.

  Three weeks before Heath’s first birthday – an anniversary which Jehovah’s Witnesses don’t celebrate – Stephen took out an insurance policy on his firstborn for $10,000. It was a surprising move for a man who was always pleading poverty.

  On 8 October 1976, Jane, by now almost nine months pregnant with their second child, went to the obstetricians to keep a routine appointment, leaving Stephen alone in the house to look after the 16-month-old. The little boy was playing contentedly in the lounge when Jane left.

  Shortly afterwards, Stephen phoned the Syracuse police to say that his son was choking. They arrived to find Heath unconscious on the couch and although they performed artificial resuscitation – as did the ambulance crew who succeeded them – the little boy died.

  The remarkably calm father told police that he’d put Heath down for a nap at midday, then had decided to put a coin in the savings bank in the baby’s room. But he realised belatedly that dropping the quarter into the slot might wake him, so he put the coin next to the nappies pail instead. Heath, he continued, must have awoken, picked up the coin and swallowed it and choked to death.

  The baby was examined and found to be clean and well-nourished and the couple’s home was immaculate. As there were no signs of child abuse, an autopsy was deemed unnecessary and ‘coin lodged in throat’ was the official cause of death. Shortly afterwards, Stephen received $10,000 from the insurance company.

  HEATHER’S DEATH

  Twelve days after Heath’s untimely death, a distraught Jane gave birth to a daughter whom they’d decided, months before, to call Heather. (It would be interesting to know if Stephen chose the names, as some psychologists believe that parents who choose names beginning with the same letter for their children are opting for a style of false bonding, in the way that insecure couples wear matching outfits or get identical tattoos.)

  Jane’s days were immediately taken up with the new baby and with grieving for the loss of Heath, but Stephen seemed more interested in spending the insurance money, buying himself a brand new Pontiac and designer clothes. Stephen’s father remarried, so the couple moved out of his home and into an upstairs flat in Syracuse. Their lives continued to revolve around the local Jehovah’s Witness Kingdom Hall.

  Shortly before Heather turned six weeks old, Stephen Van Der Sluys took out a $10,000 insurance policy on her. A month later, he woke Jane up in the middle of the night, holding Heather and screaming that she wasn’t breathing. Thankfully, Jane reacted quickly: she used her fingers to check that Heather’s airway wasn’t obstructed, whereupon the infant vomited. Jane then breathed into her mouth. Paramedics arrived swiftly and further revived the child and she was back to normal shortly after reaching the local hospital, though they kept her in for four days and carried out various tests, all of which showed that she was perfectly healthy and progressing well.

  Later that week, Jane got her hair cut short and hated it. She mused aloud about whether she should go out and buy a pair of hair tongs to add some curl to her new style and Stephen encouraged her to go, despite the fact that it was snowing heavily. He commented that she’d hardly been anywhere since the birth and offered to look after little Heather. Jane took the car and was back home with her purchase in less than an hour.

  On her return, she checked on Heather, who was lying in her crib, only to find that the baby was dead. She became hysterical and Stephen looked suitably distraught. This time an autopsy was performed, but no cause of death was discovered so the pathologist wrote Sudden Infant Death Syndrome on the death certificate. Again, Stephen Van Der Sluys collected the insurance money and went on a spending spree.

  VICKIE’S MURDER

  Jane’s father suspected that money-mad Stephen was now a double murderer and he feared for the fate of the couple’s future children, his grandchildren, so he asked them to move in with him and his wife in Mechanicville, near the state capital of Albany, explaining that he’d like Stephen to join the family industrial-cleaning firm. Stephen proved to be a poor employee but a fertile son-in-law and, on 14 October 1977, the Van Der Sluys had their third child. They called the little girl Vickie Lynn, and she was extensively tested in hospital and pronounced fit and well.

  Jane’s parents made sure that Stephen was never alone with baby Vickie, though they were aware that their vigilance made for a somewhat claustrophobic lifestyle. The two couples worked together, lived together and worshipped together at the Kingdom Hall. Stephen seemed devoted to his daughter and had the family take numerous photographs of himself with Vickie, but showed no interest in providing for her and mainly lived off a mixture of insurance payouts and welfare cheques.

  On 6 December 1978, he took out a policy on his own life and Jane’s and insisted on also having the 14-month-old insured for $30,000.

  The following month, Jane’s father needed help to clean the Kingdom Hall and Jane volunteered. By now Vickie was a robust little girl and they had no qualms about leaving her with her apparently-devoted father. But, when Jane returned from the church at midnight, the child was dead in her crib. Stephen said that she’d been acting strangely, was breathing noisily and had asked for a glass of water. He’d given her the drink and laid her down to sleep.

  Though most cases of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome occur between one and six months, and Vickie was 15 months, the pathologist wrote SIDS on the death certificate.

  By March of that year, Stephen had cashed the insurance cheque and bought himself yet another car, a limited edition Trans Am costing $15,000. He also bought himself a designer suit and an expensive coat, plus a fur coat for Jane. The couple moved to Oklahoma where Stephen planned to learn welding, but he showed no aptitude for his new trade and within 18 months they returned, broke as usual, to New York.

  THE ONES THAT GOT AWAY

  In April 1981, Jane gave birth to their fourth child, Shane, but refused to let Stephen insure him, saying that she didn’t want to tempt fate so Stephen made money by claiming on his insurance by citing a mental disability, telling a psychiatrist that he was clinically depressed because his first three children had died.

  Sh
ane and his sister Jennifer (born in March 1983) would live because their father had no financial incentive to murder them. They were also hooked up to a baby monitor which would have sounded the moment that their breathing stopped.

  STATUTORY RAPE

  Outwardly, Stephen Van Der Sluys’ life was all about his religion and his family, but inwardly he lusted for excitement and variety. At Christmas 1984, he and Jane arranged to informally foster another Jehovah’s Witness, a 16-year-old girl from a troubled background. By now, the Van Der Sluys were living in Ontario County and were stalwarts at the local Kingdom Hall. Everyone was impressed that they were willing to take on a teenager – but, almost immediately, Stephen began to clandestinely have sex with her.

  Within two months the girl returned to her family but she was already expecting his baby. When she told Stephen Van Der Sluys, he went to her father and admitted that he’d impregnated the teenager. Hoping for damage limitation, he wept and talked about the loss of his first three children to SIDS, painting himself as a victim rather than a predator. He admitted that his long-suffering wife was due to give birth in the same month as the 16-year-old.

  The teen’s father went to the police and in April they arrested the father-from-hell for having sex with a minor. (She was below the age of consent in Ontario County.) That July, he pleaded guilty to 36 counts of statutory rape and sodomy.

  ADMISSION

  Police had long suspected that he’d had something to do with the deaths of his first three children, and now they pressed him to make a full admission. Much to their surprise, he began to falteringly tell them partial truths. He swore that he hadn’t harmed his firstborn, Heath (though detectives were convinced that he had) but admitted that he’d been holding his second born, Heather, and had suddenly become convinced that she was about to expire. After rambling and sobbing some more, he added ‘I felt that she should die.’ He’d put her on her stomach in the crib (a baby should always be laid down to sleep on its back, but this wasn’t the advice given in the 1970s), and put her face into the pillow. His wife had returned to find her dead.