Mom's Notes May Explain 3 Children's Deaths
Mom's Notes May Explain 3 Children's Deaths Authorities said notes left inside the home of Paula Eleazar Mendez, 43, may explain why she took the life of her three young children and tried to kill herself by swallowing a toxic substance. Mendez was being held in an Arkansas county jail Sunday after being treated at a hospital for swallowing a toxic substance. She collapsed when police arrived at her home Saturday in response to a call from her husband, who works in New York, who said he wife had confessed to the killings. Inside the home, police found 8-year-old Elvis and 6-year-old twins, Samanta and Samuel, lying side-by-side on a bed. Autopsies will determine whether the children were smothered or poisoned, investigators said. "I do not believe there is any dispute as to who killed these three children, and therefore who will be charged," prosecutor Tom Cooper said. "However, we have not determined at this time the particular homicide charge or punishment we will be seeking." 'Quiet, Devout Woman' A family priest described Mendez as a "quiet, devout woman concerned about her children's welfare." He said she and the children never missed Sunday services and attended religious education classes. "She has tremendous remorse. She is deeply sorry," the Rev. Salvador Marquez-Munoz said. "She asked for our prayers and forgiveness because she is realizing how much she has hurt the community, as well." http://crime.about.com/b/a/239582.htm

Women Who Kill Their Children From Charles Montaldo, Your Guide to Crime / Punishment. 11 Women Are on Death Row for Killing Their Kids The nation is always shocked by criminal cases such as Andrea Yates, a mother of five who methodically drowned all of her children in a bathtub then calmly called police, but mothers killing their children are more common than we might think. According to the American Anthropological Association, more than 200 women kill their children in the United States each year. Three to five children a day are killed by their parents. Homicide is one of the leading causes of death of children under age four, yet we continue to "persist with the unrealistic view that this is rare behavior," says Jill Korbin, expert on child abuse, who has studied mothers who killed their children. We should detach from the idea of universal motherhood as natural and see it as a social response," Nancy Scheper-Hughes, medical anthropologist says. Women in jail reported that no-one believed them when they said they wanted to kill their children. "There's a collective denial even when mothers come right out and say, "I really shouldn't be trusted with my kids." A look at the rolls of women who are currently on death row, and the crimes that put them there, shows that women who kill their children are indeed not as rare as we would like to believe. Of the 49 women on death row, 11 killed children: Patricia Blackmon was 29 years old when she killed her two-year-old adopted daughter in Dothan, AL in May 1999. Debra Jean Milke was 25 when she killer her four-year-old son in Arizona in 1989. Dora Luz Durenrostro killed her two daughters, age four and nine, and her son, age 8, when she was 34 years old in San Jacinto, California in 1994. Caro Socorro was 42 years old when she killer her three sons, age five, eight and 11, in Santa Rosa Valley, California in 1999. Susan Eubanks murdered her four sons, ages four, six, seven, and 14, in San Marcos, California, in 1996 when she was 33. Caroline Young was 49 in Haywood, California when she killed her four-year-old granddaughter and six-year-old grandson. Robin Lee Row was 35 years old when she killed her husband, her 10-year-old son and her eight-year-old daughter in Boise, Idaho in 1992. Michelle Sue Tharp was 29 years old in Burgettstown, Pennsylvania when she killed her seven-year-old daughter. Franic Elaine Newton was 21 when she murdered her husband, seven-year-old son and two-year-old daughter in Houston, Texas. Darlie Lynn Routier was 26 in Rowlett, Texas when she killed her five-year-old son. Teresa Michelle Lewis killer her 51-year-old husband and 26-year-old step son in Keeling, Virgina when she was 33 years old. Korbin says there are usually clues that are obvious to those around parents who end up killing their children. "Prior to a homicide, lots of lay people know these men and women are having difficulty parenting. The public has to be better educated in recognizing how to intervene and how to support child abuse prevention," she said in an AAA press release. http://crime.about.com/od/female_offenders/a/mother_killers.htm

Mom Accused of Smothering Kids Left Notes By DANIEL CONNOLLY, Associated Press Writer 25 minutes ago DE QUEEN, Ark. - A mother accused of smothering her three young children left notes that officials say could help determine what led to the killings, and her priest said Sunday that she had expressed "tremendous remorse." Paula Eleazar Mendez, 43, was in a county jail Sunday after being hospitalized for swallowing a toxic substance. She had collapsed as officers arrived at her southwestern Arkansas home Saturday morning in response to a telephone call from the children's father in New York. Inside the home, the officers found the bodies of the children, ages 6 to 8, lying side by side on a bed, said Chris Brackett, an investigator with the Sevier County Sheriff's Office. "I do not believe there is any dispute as to who killed these three children, and therefore who will be charged," prosecutor Tom Cooper said. "However, we have not determined at this time the particular homicide charge or punishment we will be seeking." De Queen Police Chief Richard McKinley said investigators needed a translator to read the notes that were written in Spanish. A family priest who visited Mendez in a hospital Saturday night described a woman experiencing profound sorrow. "She has tremendous remorse. She is deeply sorry," the Rev. Salvador Marquez-Munoz said Sunday before entering St. Barbara Catholic Church for Mass. "She asked for our prayers and forgiveness because she is realizing how much she has hurt the community, as well." He identified the children as 8-year-old Elvis and 6-year-old twins, Samanta and her brother Samuel. Autopsies were planned to determine whether the children had been poisoned or smothered, as their mother told police, Cooper said. The children's faces were not covered when police found them. Cooper said an emergency room doctor told him Mendez had not ingested enough of the toxic substance to kill herself. Her arraignment was expected Monday, McKinley said. A neighbor said Mendez was distraught because her husband wanted a divorce, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported for Monday editions. "She was depressed," Javier Garcia said through an interpreter, explaining that she wept often for several weeks after learning the news during a trip to New York City. In the house's yard Sunday was a 7-foot-wide pile of burned papers. A page in a religion book bore the words "vamos a celebrar" — Spanish for "let's celebrate." A child's handwriting was scrawled in blue ink across some papers, and there were charred letters from a labor union in New York City. The priest said Mendez, who moved to the United States from Mexico 10 years ago, had lived in New York until last summer, when she moved with her children to De Queen because wanted them to live in a safer environment. He described her as a quiet, devout woman concerned about her children's welfare. She was not working, and her husband was supporting the family with a job in New York, he said. She and the children never missed Sunday services and attended religious education classes. Mendez seemed "very loving," said M. Rocio Maya, 29, who attended the Mass and said she had known Mendez for a few months. "Many times she showed me photos of her children," she said. "She showed me when she was pregnant with each one of them, photos of her husband, of the happy life that they had always lived." She appeared to have few friends and "didn't go out on the street much," Maya said. Maya's husband, Juan Mosqueda, said the children's father, Arturo Morales, 37, had planned to move to De Queen once the mortgage was paid on the house there. Morales was to arrive in De Queen before a funeral was to be set. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060130/ap_on_re_us/children_slain