I would like to begin this story by telling a little about myself. I have three beautiful daughters. They are all grown and I have my first grandchild on the way in about a month. Motherhood has been a blessing in my life. There is nothing that can compare to the unconditional love you have for that little person you created. I am so proud of the young women they have become. All strong, independent and smart. With all that being said, the following compilation of stories boggles my mind. I can't even imagine how these women could do these things.
As you may already know I do enjoy historical stories. History intrigues me as much as true crime does. When you put those two things together it grabs all of my attention. I will be starting with an old story and work my way up to more recent. This blog maybe a bit longer than some of my others. Hope you are ready to read. Let's get this started.
Marie Noe
Marie Noe was charged in 1998 with the deaths of 8 of her children. Deaths that took place between the years of 1949 and 1968. Marie and Arthur Noe had their first child in 1949 and named him Richard. The young mother did not adjust well to being a new mother. She struggled with even the simplest of tasks for most mothers. When Arthur came home from work he found the baby in his crib and he was no longer breathing. The death was ruled as a crib death and nothing was assumed otherwise. Shortly after the death, Marie strangely became blind. Arthur took her to the hospital and they ruled that it was Psychological due to stress. She recovered and a year and a half later they had their second child. While alone with Marie she stopped breathing and her death was also assumed to be crib death. This continued to happen and the hospital and a coroner became suspicious. When she gave birth to a baby girl the hospital decided to keep the baby there for a few months before releasing her to the parents. The little girl lived 14 months but had several close calls until her death. They had 10 children total. Two were still born, the rest died sometime after being released from the hospital. All the children died of asphyxiation. In August, 1998 she was finally arrested for the crimes after a similar case of another woman came to light. After her arrest she plead guilty initially to four murders and claimed she couldn't remember what happened to the other four. She finally reached a plea deal in July 1999 and plead guilty to all 8 murders, admitting she suffocated all of them. She was 77 years old at the time of the plea and was sentenced to 20 years probation and 5 years home confinement.
Diane Downs
Diane Down was a working mother of three. She married Steve Downs at a young age and had two daughters Christie and Cheryl Lynn. She also had affairs which resulted in her youngest son Danny. He was still considered to be Steve's child. Among her affairs she became involved with a man she worked with. He didn't want children. Diane began to see the children as an obstacle in the way of her happiness. On May 19th 1983 she took the kids for a drive on a dark road in Oregon. She pulled over and shot all three children. Cheryl Lynn died before she made it to the hospital. The other two were critically wounded. Danny was paraplegic and Christie almost died but recovered with limited use of one of her arms. She later testified against her mother. Diane Downs was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life in prison plus fifty years. I plan on doing a more thorough blog on this story so a summation is all I am going for on this one. This case is filled with many twists and turns. It makes my head spin.
Susan Smith
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Susan Smith was a mother of two small boys. Three year old Michael and 14 month old Alex. On October 24th 1994 she dominated the news cycle when she claimed that a man had stole her car with the boys inside. Her description of the man was very vague. After exhaustive searching for the car and the boys for 9 days, she finally confessed that she committed the crime. Similar to the Downs story, she had also become involved with a man who didn't want children. She loaded the boys into her car and drove to John D. Long Lake and allowed her car to roll down a boat ramp with the boys strapped in their car seats. I have heard that when they retrieved the car the boys were holding hands. I have no facts to back that up but I believe it. On July 27th 1995, after being found guilty of murder she was sentenced to 37 years to life in prison.
Andrea Yates
Andrea Yates and Russell Yates were married and wanted to start a family. Andrea loved being a mother. She home schooled her children and there are videos I have seen that looked like she was very happy. The truth is that with every child that was born she became more sick psychologically. She gave birth to 5 kids. Four boys and one girl. She was in and out of mental institutions for psychosis. They had her on medicine that was helping but when she got pregnant with her daughter she came off the medicine. After the baby was born they put her back on a different medicine that was not as effective. Over the years she had threatened her own life but never showed any signs that she would harm the children. She had family members in and out to help her from time to time but on June 20th 2001 she was left alone with the children. She went into the bathroom and filled the tub with water. Then, she took the children in one by one and drown them. She removed them from the tub and placed them on a bed side by side. After the last one was dead, she called 911 and told them she needed the police. She confessed after being brought to the police station. She told law enforcement that she did it to save them. In her psychosis she was hearing voices telling her that her children were bad and they were going to go to hell. She believed if they died before they reached that point of accountability that they would go to heaven. She went to trial and was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison. Later it was determined that she was convicted due to false testimony. She was granted a new trial and was found not guilty by reason of insanity.
These stories rip at our heart strings especially if you are a parent. We catch ourselves asking, "How does a mother do that?" I have asked myself the same question. I would give my last breath to save any of my children, as I am sure many of you would as well. In my analysis and opinion of each of these cases I find similarities. In the Downs case and Smith case, I believe they were both fueled by sadistic and self-serving intent in harming their children. They saw their children as an obstacle. In the Noe and Yates case the similarities are also vast. One comparison is that Noe went to her priest and talked to him about the fact she didn't want to have anymore children. She wanted to take measures to prevent pregnancy. He told her it was a sin to do that. So she continued having children. I feel she wasn't cut out to be a mother and the stress of it overwhelmed her. I also believe the theory that she blacked out during some of those deaths and wasn't aware of what she was doing. Yates also followed a religion that believed in big families and frowned on the use of birth control. She continued to have children and became more and more sick due to that fact. I feel both women's outcomes may have been different had someone intervened more quickly. I am not condoning what they did by any means. I am just looking at the bigger picture. Psychological illness is a serious thing. Your mind makes you do crazy things. I feel more strongly about Andrea than Marie in this regard because Andrea actually called the police and turned herself in. Marie covered it up for decades. I still feel both had a psychological illness that caused them to do what they did.
I hope you enjoyed these stories. I summarized and added alot of my own takes on the crimes. I feel all of us who enjoy true crime walk away from each story with deep opinions. I would love to hear some of yours. Not only in this blog but any of them.
I will end by saying I hope each one of these children are at peace. May they always be remembered by those who loved them and those of us who hear their story.
Though your life was so very brief,
the ones who knew you felt the grief.
May you rest in peace little angels, sleep.
Until reunited the memories we will keep.
Victims
Richard Allan Noe Birth: March 7, 1949 Death: April 7, 1949
Elizabeth Mary Noe Birth: September 8, 1950 Death: February 17, 1951
Jacqueline Noe Birth: April 23, 1952 Death: May 3, 1952
Arthur Noe Jr Birth: April 23, 1955 Death: April 28, 1955
Constance Noe Birth: February 24, 1958 Death: March 20, 1958
Mary Lee Noe Birth: June 19, 1962 Death: January 4, 1963
Catherine Ellen Noe Birth: December 3, 1964 Death: February 24, 1966
Arthur Joseph Noe Birth: July 28, 1967 Death: January 2, 1968
Cheryl Lynn Downs Birth: January 10, 1976 Death: May 19, 1983
Michael Daniel Smith Birth: October 10, 1991 Death: October 25, 1994
Alexander Smith Birth: August 5, 1993 Death: October 25, 1994
Noah Yates Birth: February 26, 1994 Death: June 20, 2001
John Yates Birth: December 15, 1995 Death: June 20, 2001
Paul Yates Birth: September 13, 1997 Death: June 20, 2001
Luke Yates Birth: February 15, 1999 Death: June 20, 2001
Mary Yates Birth: November 26, 2000 Death: June 20, 2001
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