Canada's largest newspaper
Mom charged with murder
Daughter, 4, drowned in tub last year
Arrest 'so unexpected,' husband says
Toronto Star, by TRACY HUFFMAN AND NICHOLAS KEUNG, STAFF REPORTERS, Mar. 2, 2005
When they saw homicide officers at their Scarborough home Monday afternoon, Scarlett Chen's parents thought they were going to be updated on the drowning of their four-year-old daughter last year.
Instead police arrested the girl's mother, Xuan Peng, 33, and charged her with first-degree murder.
"We were surprised that they were here to arrest my wife. It was so unexpected," Peng's husband, David Chen, told a reporter with the Toronto Star's sister newspaper, Sing Tao, yesterday.
Chen said he and his wife have co-operated with police since Scarlett's death on July 12, 2004, in their home on Rosebank Dr. in the Markham Rd. and Sheppard Ave. E. area. Since her death, both parents have been interviewed by police — Peng three times and Chen twice, Chen said in his native Mandarin in an interview with Sing Tao reporter Percta Lam.
Chen insisted that his wife, a student at Centennial College taking English language courses, did not kill their only child.
"My wife put the girl to sleep and went on to put some clothes in the tub. She was planning to wash the clothes later. The tub was half full. She didn't know how the girl would get into the tub. It was an accident. My wife is innocent," Chen said.
Chen said he and his mother-in-law had been out that night, visiting a friend, a new immigrant from China who had just had a baby.
"The cause of death was drowning but I can't get into the mechanics of it," said Det. Ray Zarb of the homicide squad.
A person is charged with first-degree murder when police believe a killing was planned and deliberate, according to the Criminal Code.
Shortly after Scarlett's death, Peng told police she put her daughter to bed around 6:30 p.m. When Chen arrived home shortly afterward, he found his daughter submerged in a bathtub filled with laundry and water. The tub was in a bathroom adjacent to the little girl's room in the three-storey townhouse unit.
Attempts to revive the girl by paramedics were unsuccessful. Scarlett was pronounced dead at hospital shortly after 8 p.m.
Peng and Chen moved from China about five years ago and have lived in the Rosebank Dr. townhouse for about two years. Scarlett and Peng's mother joined them about a year and a half ago, according to one family friend.
To supplement their income, they have rented the third floor of their home to Centennial College students.
At the time of the death, a neighbour told Sing Tao that Scarlett had language difficulties and she didn't play with other children her age, but enjoyed riding her bike in a nearby park. The grandmother had told the family friend the girl was autistic, the friend said.
Peng missed a scheduled court appearance yesterday after suffering a medical emergency some time after her arrest that required hospitalization. Zarb refused to discuss details of her medical condition. He said Peng co-operated when police arrested her. Chen said his wife went directly to a Scarborough hospital after her arrest.
Peng's mother, a former gymnast for Hunan province, from where the family hails, said her daughter suffered from depression after Scarlett was born.
"She had been on medication but she has recovered," the woman said. "My daughter is innocent. Little Scarlett was so lovely. She was their own child; why would she have the heart to kill her?"
Peng's lawyer, Ed Hung, said his client had no indication that she was going to be charged. He would not disclose any further details relating to his client's health. Hung said sometimes there's a delay in the process when a person is not fit to make a court appearance.
The arrest, more than seven months after Scarlett's death, was the result of combining evidence gathered over time, said Zarb. He said the arrest was not the result of new information.
"There's nothing unusual about an arrest months later. Sometimes the collection of evidence takes that long," he said.
Peng is to appear in College Park court Monday
Mom sought men to sexually assault girl, 10, before death: Warrants
The Associated Press, Published Wednesday, September 14, 2016
WARNING: This story contains disturbing details.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- The mother of a 10-year-old New Mexico girl found dead and dismembered told police she sought men online and at work to sexually assault her daughter, according to warrants obtained by the Albuquerque Journal.
Michelle Martens told police that she had set up encounters with at least three men to sexually assault her daughter, the Albuquerque Journal reported. The child's death sparked vigils and outcry across the state.
Boy, 8, found dead; mom faces charge
Canadian Press, (various newspapers across Canada, including the Toronto Star) Aug. 16, 2006.
ISLE LA MOTTE, Vt. A Montreal mother recovering from alleged self-inflicted wounds will be charged in the coming days with murdering her 8-year-old son, whose body was found in Lake Champlain, a Vermont state attorney said today.
I am going to prepare a charge of first-degree murder, Grand Isle States Attorney David Miller said in a telephone interview. Read More ..
Yeeda Topham killed her baby son but walks free
Australian Associated Press
December 05,
2008
A WOMAN who killed her infant son by jumping with him from the eighth floor of a city apartment block has walked free after being convicted of manslaughter.
Yeeda Topham, 40, of Roleystone near Perth, had pleaded guilty in the West Australian Supreme Court to a charge of unlawfully killing 21-month-old James Topham on November 5 last year. Read More ..
Firefighters Find Baby's Body In Washing Machine
Fire Officials Claim Fire Intentionally Set
NBC4-TV, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.
LOS ANGELES, USA -- Murder charges are expected to be filed against a woman whose infant son's body was found in a washing machine after firefighters doused what they say was an intentionally set fire, authorities said Tuesday.
Latunga Starks, 32, was taken into custody last night, according to the Sheriff's Department Web site.
Los Angeles Police Department Lt. Dennis Shirey identified the mother and her nearly 3-month-old son, Michael Kelvin Thompson.
Mother found guilty of drowning autistic daughter
The Toronto Star, By Peter Small, Courts Bureau, March 01, 2008
Xuan (Linda) Peng has been found guilty of second-degree murder in the drowning death of her 4-year-old autistic daughter Scarlett in a bathtub in the family home.
A Superior Court jury returned its verdict Saturday morning after two days of deliberations.
Scarlett Chen was discovered unconscious by her distraught father David Chen in the tub on the second floor of the family's townhouse on Rosebank Dr., near Markham Rd. and Sheppard Ave. E. on July 12, 2004.
Peng told police that she had put their daughter down for a nap in the adjoining bedroom, and had no idea she had climbed into the bathtub, which the woman had filled with water to clean some kitchen utensils.
However, seven months later, homicide detectives charged the 36-year-old Chinese immigrant with first-degree murder. The charges were later reduced to second-degree murder. Read More ..
Woman held in beating deaths of sons
Associated Press, Globe and Mail, Tuesday, May. 13, 2003, Page A15
TYLER, TEX. -- A woman accused of fatally beating two of her sons with rocks spent Mother's Day sobbing and muttering in a jail cell.
Deanna LaJune Laney, 38, remained on suicide watch yesterday at Smith County Jail, where she was held in lieu of a $3-million (U.S.) bond on capital-murder and aggravated-assault charges.
Ms. Laney is accused of killing Joshua Laney, 8, and Luke Laney, 6, and injuring their 14-month-old brother, Aaron. The toddler remained in critical condition yesterday at a Dallas Hospital.
In a call to emergency workers early Saturday, Ms. Laney reported that she had just "bashed their heads in with a rock," Sheriff J. B. Smith said. Read More ..
Mother Shoots father, has his Baby and then kills the Baby and Herself
Investigation into the Death of Zachary Andrew Turner (18 July 2002 to 18 August 2003)
Zachary Turner, a 13 months old baby, died at the hands of his fugitive mother, Dr. Shirley Turner, who killed him and then committed suicide on August 18, 2003.
Turner was facing extradition to the United States to stand trial for the 2001 murder of Dr. Andrew Bagby, Zachary's father.
28-year-old Dr. Andrew Bagby was found shot to death in Keystone State Park, 55 kilometres northeast of Pittsburgh, PA, U.S.A.
Turner fled to Newfoundland, Canada where Zachary was born. She was out on bail against the wishes of U.S. authorities at the time of Zachary's death. Read More ..
Canada's largest national newspaper
Some mothers have had enough hugs
The Globe and Mail
October 6, 2006
Toronto - As a female friend of Frances Elaine Campione put it, this after Ms. Campione was charged on Wednesday with murder in the death of her two young children, "That mother needs a hug."
In that line, widely repeated in Toronto and national media outlets, is a telling clue to what is so wrong with much of what happens both in the nation's family courts and in its child-protection system -- the pervasive view of the female of the species as constantly nurturing (except, you know, when she allegedly kills) and as in need of constant nurture (hugs all 'round, no matter what).
For the record, Ms. Campione was arrested two days ago after she phoned 911 to report that there were two dead children inside her Barrie, Ont., apartment, and shortly after, didn't police arrive to find the bodies of her own little girls, one-year-old Sophia and three-year-old Serena.
She and her estranged husband Leo were reportedly in the throes of a nasty custody battle, with Mr. Campione accused of assaulting his wife and the older child, and Ms. Campione allegedly alarmed, and/or depressed, at the prospect of losing that fight.
And The Globe has confirmed that involved with the family was the Children's Aid Society of Simcoe County. At the moment, the nature of that involvement is unknown -- except as it has been reported by neighbours who saw social workers at the apartment and say that, for a time recently, the girls lived with their paternal grandparents.
Ontario woman convicted of son's starvation death granted full parole
Canadian Press
Wednesday, May. 22, 2002
KINGSTON, Ont. (CP) -- An Ontario woman who was sentenced to 16 years in prison in one of Canada's stiffest penalties for child abuse will be released on full parole after serving less than half her term.
Lorelei Turner, 38, and her husband Steven were convicted of manslaughter in July 1995 for beating and starving their three-year-old son John to death in a case that horrified Canadians who followed the trial.
But on Wednesday, a panel of the National Parole Board in this eastern Ontario city ruled Turner will be released but placed on probation until July 2011.
Until then, she must remain within 25 kilometres of her residence, is not allowed unsupervised contact with anyone under 16, and must continue to receive counselling.
"The board would have looked at the risk and obviously found a low risk to reoffend," Carol Sparling of the National Parole Board said Wednesday.
Woman accused of throwing son off Oregon bridge
The Associated Press, U.S.A., November 4, 2014
NEWPORT, Ore. -- A woman who said she threw her 6-year-old son off a historic bridge on the Oregon coast was arrested after the boy's body was found in the bay, police said.
Police and firefighters in the coastal city of Newport, Lincoln County deputies and the Coast Guard searched the bay with boats and a helicopter after Jillian Meredith McCabe, 34, of Seal Rock called 911 at 6:25 p.m. Monday to report throwing her son off the Yaquina Bay Bridge.
The boy's body was found at 10:23 p.m. in the bay after it was spotted near the Embarcadero Resort, police said.
Affair led to mother murdering her own kids
Days after buying another woman Valentine's Day flowers, a Sydney father came home to find a trail of blood leading him to the bodies of his two young children lying next to their mother, a court has been told.
Australian Associated Press
Aug 24 2009
The woman had given the couple's three-year-old daughter and four-year-old son rat poison and an unidentified pink liquid before smothering them and killing them, court papers said.
She then tried to take her own life, the NSW Supreme Court was told.
Doctors agree the mother, from Canley Heights in Sydney's west, was suffering from "major depression" when she poisoned her children on February 19 last year.
She has pleaded not guilty to the two murders by reason of mental illness.
As her judge-alone trial began, the mother's lawyer told Justice Clifton Hoeben his client didn't think life was worth living after learning about her husband's affair.
New Brunswick woman ruled responsible in burning of baby's body
ST. STEPHEN, N.B. - A New Brunswick judge says a woman who burned and dismembered her newborn son is criminally responsible for her actions.
Becky Sue Morrow earlier pleaded guilty to offering an indignity to a dead body and disposing of a newborn with the intent of concealing a delivery.
Judge David Walker ruled Friday that the 27-year-old woman may have been suffering from a mental disorder when she delivered the baby but that that was not the case when the baby's body was burned and its remains hidden.
It is not known if the baby was alive at the time of birth.
At a hearing last month, the court heard contrasting reports from the two psychiatrists. One said Ms. Morrow was in a "disassociated" mental state when the crime occurred. The other said she clearly planned her actions and understood the consequences.
Mother sentenced to more than two years jail time in connection to death of infant son
The Toronto Star, April 3 2013
A woman has been sentenced to 27 months in prison in connection to the death of her nine-week-old son in a bizarre case where the infant boy's body has yet to be recovered.
Both parents Ricky Ray Doodhnaught, 32, and Nadia Ayyad, 24, have been implicated in the case that dates back to November 2011 when Children's Aid workers along with York Regional Police attempted to seize two children under a court order from a Vaughan home.