California woman admits serially killing four babies

[The Straight Story]

California woman admits serially killing four babies


SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - In picturesque Mendocino County, California, sheriff's detectives say a woman has admitted to serially killing four of her babies over a five-year period.

Sergeant Scott Poma says Cheryl Miller's brother called deputies to reveal a terrible secret: that his sister killed the children between 1965 and 1970.

Investigators found Miller in San Francisco, unemployed and living alone. She was arrested Monday, with bail set at two million dollars.

Poma says the killings began in San Diego County with the death of eleven-day-old Sherry Scott. Her 14-month-old sister died a month later. Both deaths were declared natural.

Fifteen months later, three-month-old David died in Long Beach and, finally, nine-month-old Kimberly died in Mendocino County in 1970. Authorities then took away two other children.

http://www.kget.com/news/national/story.aspx?content_id=DFAC93D0-3137-442F-9ABB-FF399A3F6012

[951-Riverside]

1. Let her go she had the.... postpartum depression

[EFerrari]

2. Please. The empathy is overwhelming. Not to mention

you just pissed off every woman on this board that has had to deal with the real thing.

[REP]

4. Post-Partum Psychosis, Perhaps

If every woman who had post-partum depression killed her child, the world wouldn't be overpopulated. Post-partum psychosis is rarer and much more severe.

typo

[REP]

3. But Remember, Abortion is Evil

The birth control pill was introduced in 1960 and available to married women; one wonders why she didn't take it or have a tubal ligation.

[Erika]

6. W doesn't encourage or pay for birth control

She should have just abstained from sex.

[REP]

8. This Was the 1960s - Can't Blame W (For Once)

She had a few birth control options; as I wrote in another post, it is possible she was in a relationship where she wasn't allowed to use them. I understand why she didn't put them up for adoption, but to keep having babies (six total) when clearly something was going on where she didn't want that many ...

[Kiouni]

5. How is it serial killing?

I thought that the victims had to be random, these were her kids right? or did i read that wrong.

[REP]

7. She Killed Them One After Another, But Not a "Serial Crime" Per Se

Serial killings have a sexual element; these children were killed serially - that is, one after another - but they were not serial killings. She either had children she didn't want (and as with most women who have unwanted pregnancies, adoption is not an option) and/or is/was crazy to some degree. I guess 'crazy to some degree' because she had some options to prevent the pregnancies, though it is possible she was in a relationship where she was not allowed to use the Pill or could not obtain her husband's consent for sterilization (it was the 1960s).

[Bluebear]

9. Munchausen by proxy? (sp?)