Post by ophion1031 on Jul 30, 2018 22:08:19 GMT -8
Marybeth Roe Tinning (born September 11, 1942) is a former resident of Schenectady County, New York, who was arrested and convicted for the murder of her ninth child, 4-month-old daughter Tami Lynne. The murder occurred five days before Christmas in 1985. Laboratory testing indicated the death of Tinning's ninth child resulted from asphyxia by suffocation. It was the diligence of Michael M. Baden, the forensic pathologist assigned to Tami Lynne's death, and his findings of this ninth child's cause of death, that led authorities to start investigations into the eight other children's deaths.
The time span from her first child's death to her ninth child's murder was a total of 14 years. Cause of deaths for the first eight children, in the opinion of doctors, was a matter of bad genes in the family. Even when their 1978 adopted sixth child, Michael, who was not of blood relation, died in 1981 authorities failed to open an investigation on this death.
Due to lack of evidence, after investigating the other children's deaths, the Schenectady County prosecutors only charged Tinning in one child's death. In July 1987, she was convicted of second-degree murder. Followed by a sentencing of 20 years to life, on October 1, 1987. An appeal of her case to the New York Supreme Court argued Tinning's confession to the crime was coerced and there was insufficient evidence to convict her, her appeal was denied.
Following her arrest, in February 1986, Tinning's diagnoses of having Munchausen syndrome by proxy (MsP) has come into question. It is unclear if she has ever been diagnosed with MsP. Analyzing her recurring events, some believe Tinning's pattern of behavior aligns perfectly with the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition's (DSM-5) Development and Course section on the disorder: "In individuals with recurrent episodes of falsification of signs and symptoms of illness and/or induction of injury, this pattern of successive deceptive contact with medical personnel, including hospitalizations, may become lifelong."
Tinning is incarcerated at Taconic Correctional Facility for Women in Bedford Hills, New York. She was denied parole six times, but was granted parole on her seventh hearing in July 2018, and could be released in August 2018.
She is the subject of the book From Cradle to Grave: The Short Lives and Strange Deaths of Marybeth Tinning's Nine Children by Joyce Edington. Her case is disclosed on at least three American television crime series.
Early life:
Marybeth Roe was born on September 11, 1942 in the small town of Duanesburg, New York to Ruth and Alton Lewis Roe. She is the older of two children and has a younger brother. There is little information available regarding her formative years (up to 8 years old). During a portion of this time, her father was deployed overseas fighting in World War II while her mother was working. Due to both of her parents being away at times, Marybeth was occasionally shuffled between nearby relatives for care. This is when one of her elderly relatives brazenly told her she was an accidental child and her birth was unwanted. When her little brother reached adolescence, Marybeth would tell him, "You were the one they wanted, not me."
Her father, Alton Lewis Roe, on completion of his active duty, worked as a press operator in a nearby General Electric facility. At the time, the facility was the area's largest employer. As an adult, Marybeth once claimed that when she was a child, her father abused her. During a police interview in 1986, she told one investigator that her father had beaten her and locked her in a closet. During court testimony, she denied that her father had bad intentions. "My father hit me with a flyswatter," she told the court, "because he had arthritis and his hands were not of much use. And when he locked me in my room I guess he thought I deserved it.
Marybeth was an average student at Duanesburg High School and graduated in 1961. Following high school, she worked at various low-paying and unskilled jobs. She eventually settled on a job as a nursing assistant at Ellis Hospital in Schenectady, New York, ten miles north of Duanseburg.
Marriage and poisoning:
In 1963, she met Joseph Tinning on a blind date with some friends. Joseph had a very quiet personality and was very happy-go-lucky. The couple got married in 1965. The Tinnings' first child, Barbara, was born in May 1967. In January 1970, Joseph, the Tinnings' second child, was born.
In 1974, Joseph Tinning was admitted to the hospital due to a near-fatal dosage of barbiturate poisoning. Later he and Marybeth acknowledged that when this incident occurred their marriage was under heavy turmoil. This led to her placing pills, which she took from a friend with an epileptic daughter, into Joseph's grape juice. Joseph declined to press charges against his wife.
In October 1971, Tinning's father died of a sudden heart attack.
Children's deaths:
In December 1971, Jennifer, the Tinnings' third child, was born. Jennifer died, only 8 days old, from hemorrhagic meningitis and multiple brain abscesses from birth. Seventeen days after Jennifer's death, on January 20, 1972, Tinning took her two-year-old son, Joseph Jr., to the Ellis Hospital emergency room in Schenectady. His death was attributed to cardiopulmonary arrest. Several weeks later, Marybeth rushed Barbara to the hospital because she had gone into convulsions. The next day, Barbara died, after being in a comatose state for several hours. Barbara's death was attributed to Reye syndrome. Marybeth Tinning was 29 years old at this time. On Thanksgiving Day 1973, Tinning gave birth to a son, Timothy. On December 10, Timothy was brought back to the same hospital. He was dead. Tinning told doctors she found him lifeless in his crib. Doctors attributed his death to sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). In March 1975, Tinning's fifth child, Nathan, was born. Later, that autumn, he died in the car while out with Tinning.
In August 1978, the Tinnings adopted Michael, shortly after he was born. On October 29, she gave birth to her sixth child, Mary Frances. In January 1979, Tinning rushed Mary Frances to the emergency room, directly across the street from her apartment, saying the baby had had a seizure. The staff was able to revive her, reporting "aborted SIDS." A month later, Tinning returned to the hospital with Mary Frances in full cardiac arrest; she was revived, but had irreversible brain damage. Two days later, Mary Frances died after being taken off life support. In the fall, Jonathan, the Tinnings' eighth child, was born. In March 1980, Jonathan died, after being kept on life support in Albany, New York for four weeks. In March 1981, Tinning took Michael to the doctor's office because he would not wake up. Michael died. In February, he had been taken to the hospital for falling down stairs. Since Michael was adopted, the long-suspected theory that the deaths in the Tinning family had a genetic origin was discarded.
In August 1985, Tami Lynne was born. On December 20, she died from being smothered. That day, the Tinning family was visited by Betsy Mannix of Schenectady County's Department of Social Services and Bob Imfeld of the Schenectady Police Department, regarding the death of Tami Lynne.
The causes of the children's deaths were listed diversely between natural, undetermined or of sudden infant death syndrome. A total of six autopsies were executed post Tami Lynne's death, but never any signs of abuse. There were suspicions and community whispers of foul play. But prior to Tami Lynne's passing no one, not the police, the coroner, social workers, doctors, neighbors, not even her husband recognized a pattern of evil in the sequences of deaths. "There were so many of us in on it, I guess,'" said Dr. Robert L. Sullivan, Schenectady County's Chief Medical Examiner. "If anyone is negligent, I suppose I am. I probably should have said, 'There must be more to it than this.' But we all think, and don't do."
Arrest and interrogation:
Marybeth and Joe Tinning were separately taken to the Schenectady Police Department for questioning regarding the death of Tami Lynne. During the police interrogation, Marybeth signed a document confessing to the murders of Tami Lynne, Timothy, and Nathan. Marybeth was arrested and charged with the murder of Tami Lynne.
Police officials initially suspected that Tami Lynne died of SIDS. Dr. Michael M. Baden, the lead forensic pathologist and member of the State Police's special forensic unit determined Tami Lynne's death resulted from smothering. After charging Marybeth with Tami Lynne's death, officials said that they considered the deaths of the eight other Tinning children to be suspicious. Investigators later said that Jennifer's death was not suspect because it occurred before the baby left the hospital.
Marybeth Tinning made her $100,000 bail payment and was released from custody until her trial date.
Trial and conviction:
The murder trial of Tinning began in Schenectady County Court on June 22, 1987. Dr. Bradley Ford, Tami Lynne's pediatrician, testified on behalf of the prosecution saying Tinning had dismissed his suggestion that, due to her sibling's deaths, she should install a specialized alarm device enabling the monitoring of the baby's breathing and heart rate. Two additional prosecution witnesses Dr. Marie Valdes-Dapena of Miami, FL president of the SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) Foundation and Dr. Thomas Oram, the medical examiner who performed the baby's autopsy—said they diagnosed that Tami Lynne was smothered to death with a soft object.
After the six-week trial, the jury deliberated for 23 hours across three days leading to the conviction of Tinning, 44, to one count of second-degree murder. During their deliberation, jurors called for a read-back of the portions of Joseph Tinning's testimony recounting his wife's alleged confession to State Police. In his testimony, Joseph said that he had a five-minute conversation with Marybeth Tinning following the police questioning, she told him, 'I killed Tami.' She was acquitted by the seven-man, five-woman jury for the count of 'deliberately' causing the infant's death, but was convicted of murder by 'depraved indifference to human life' count. Tinning placed her hands over her eyes and sobbed quietly as the verdict was announced. Later her husband, Joseph, said "I still think she's innocent." Judge Clifford Harrigan immediately vacated Tinning's $100,000 bail, and mandated she be held in the Schenectady County Jail, pending her sentencing trial.
After her trial, she received a sentence of 20 years to life, five years shorter than the maximum penalty for this crime and imprisoned at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women.
After her conviction, she appealed on the grounds that her confession was not voluntarily given and that her conviction was not supported by sufficient evidence. In 1988, her appeal was denied by the NY State Supreme Court's Appellate Division.
The time span from her first child's death to her ninth child's murder was a total of 14 years. Cause of deaths for the first eight children, in the opinion of doctors, was a matter of bad genes in the family. Even when their 1978 adopted sixth child, Michael, who was not of blood relation, died in 1981 authorities failed to open an investigation on this death.
Due to lack of evidence, after investigating the other children's deaths, the Schenectady County prosecutors only charged Tinning in one child's death. In July 1987, she was convicted of second-degree murder. Followed by a sentencing of 20 years to life, on October 1, 1987. An appeal of her case to the New York Supreme Court argued Tinning's confession to the crime was coerced and there was insufficient evidence to convict her, her appeal was denied.
Following her arrest, in February 1986, Tinning's diagnoses of having Munchausen syndrome by proxy (MsP) has come into question. It is unclear if she has ever been diagnosed with MsP. Analyzing her recurring events, some believe Tinning's pattern of behavior aligns perfectly with the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition's (DSM-5) Development and Course section on the disorder: "In individuals with recurrent episodes of falsification of signs and symptoms of illness and/or induction of injury, this pattern of successive deceptive contact with medical personnel, including hospitalizations, may become lifelong."
Tinning is incarcerated at Taconic Correctional Facility for Women in Bedford Hills, New York. She was denied parole six times, but was granted parole on her seventh hearing in July 2018, and could be released in August 2018.
She is the subject of the book From Cradle to Grave: The Short Lives and Strange Deaths of Marybeth Tinning's Nine Children by Joyce Edington. Her case is disclosed on at least three American television crime series.
Early life:
Marybeth Roe was born on September 11, 1942 in the small town of Duanesburg, New York to Ruth and Alton Lewis Roe. She is the older of two children and has a younger brother. There is little information available regarding her formative years (up to 8 years old). During a portion of this time, her father was deployed overseas fighting in World War II while her mother was working. Due to both of her parents being away at times, Marybeth was occasionally shuffled between nearby relatives for care. This is when one of her elderly relatives brazenly told her she was an accidental child and her birth was unwanted. When her little brother reached adolescence, Marybeth would tell him, "You were the one they wanted, not me."
Her father, Alton Lewis Roe, on completion of his active duty, worked as a press operator in a nearby General Electric facility. At the time, the facility was the area's largest employer. As an adult, Marybeth once claimed that when she was a child, her father abused her. During a police interview in 1986, she told one investigator that her father had beaten her and locked her in a closet. During court testimony, she denied that her father had bad intentions. "My father hit me with a flyswatter," she told the court, "because he had arthritis and his hands were not of much use. And when he locked me in my room I guess he thought I deserved it.
Marybeth was an average student at Duanesburg High School and graduated in 1961. Following high school, she worked at various low-paying and unskilled jobs. She eventually settled on a job as a nursing assistant at Ellis Hospital in Schenectady, New York, ten miles north of Duanseburg.
Marriage and poisoning:
In 1963, she met Joseph Tinning on a blind date with some friends. Joseph had a very quiet personality and was very happy-go-lucky. The couple got married in 1965. The Tinnings' first child, Barbara, was born in May 1967. In January 1970, Joseph, the Tinnings' second child, was born.
In 1974, Joseph Tinning was admitted to the hospital due to a near-fatal dosage of barbiturate poisoning. Later he and Marybeth acknowledged that when this incident occurred their marriage was under heavy turmoil. This led to her placing pills, which she took from a friend with an epileptic daughter, into Joseph's grape juice. Joseph declined to press charges against his wife.
In October 1971, Tinning's father died of a sudden heart attack.
Children's deaths:
In December 1971, Jennifer, the Tinnings' third child, was born. Jennifer died, only 8 days old, from hemorrhagic meningitis and multiple brain abscesses from birth. Seventeen days after Jennifer's death, on January 20, 1972, Tinning took her two-year-old son, Joseph Jr., to the Ellis Hospital emergency room in Schenectady. His death was attributed to cardiopulmonary arrest. Several weeks later, Marybeth rushed Barbara to the hospital because she had gone into convulsions. The next day, Barbara died, after being in a comatose state for several hours. Barbara's death was attributed to Reye syndrome. Marybeth Tinning was 29 years old at this time. On Thanksgiving Day 1973, Tinning gave birth to a son, Timothy. On December 10, Timothy was brought back to the same hospital. He was dead. Tinning told doctors she found him lifeless in his crib. Doctors attributed his death to sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). In March 1975, Tinning's fifth child, Nathan, was born. Later, that autumn, he died in the car while out with Tinning.
In August 1978, the Tinnings adopted Michael, shortly after he was born. On October 29, she gave birth to her sixth child, Mary Frances. In January 1979, Tinning rushed Mary Frances to the emergency room, directly across the street from her apartment, saying the baby had had a seizure. The staff was able to revive her, reporting "aborted SIDS." A month later, Tinning returned to the hospital with Mary Frances in full cardiac arrest; she was revived, but had irreversible brain damage. Two days later, Mary Frances died after being taken off life support. In the fall, Jonathan, the Tinnings' eighth child, was born. In March 1980, Jonathan died, after being kept on life support in Albany, New York for four weeks. In March 1981, Tinning took Michael to the doctor's office because he would not wake up. Michael died. In February, he had been taken to the hospital for falling down stairs. Since Michael was adopted, the long-suspected theory that the deaths in the Tinning family had a genetic origin was discarded.
In August 1985, Tami Lynne was born. On December 20, she died from being smothered. That day, the Tinning family was visited by Betsy Mannix of Schenectady County's Department of Social Services and Bob Imfeld of the Schenectady Police Department, regarding the death of Tami Lynne.
The causes of the children's deaths were listed diversely between natural, undetermined or of sudden infant death syndrome. A total of six autopsies were executed post Tami Lynne's death, but never any signs of abuse. There were suspicions and community whispers of foul play. But prior to Tami Lynne's passing no one, not the police, the coroner, social workers, doctors, neighbors, not even her husband recognized a pattern of evil in the sequences of deaths. "There were so many of us in on it, I guess,'" said Dr. Robert L. Sullivan, Schenectady County's Chief Medical Examiner. "If anyone is negligent, I suppose I am. I probably should have said, 'There must be more to it than this.' But we all think, and don't do."
Arrest and interrogation:
Marybeth and Joe Tinning were separately taken to the Schenectady Police Department for questioning regarding the death of Tami Lynne. During the police interrogation, Marybeth signed a document confessing to the murders of Tami Lynne, Timothy, and Nathan. Marybeth was arrested and charged with the murder of Tami Lynne.
Police officials initially suspected that Tami Lynne died of SIDS. Dr. Michael M. Baden, the lead forensic pathologist and member of the State Police's special forensic unit determined Tami Lynne's death resulted from smothering. After charging Marybeth with Tami Lynne's death, officials said that they considered the deaths of the eight other Tinning children to be suspicious. Investigators later said that Jennifer's death was not suspect because it occurred before the baby left the hospital.
Marybeth Tinning made her $100,000 bail payment and was released from custody until her trial date.
Trial and conviction:
The murder trial of Tinning began in Schenectady County Court on June 22, 1987. Dr. Bradley Ford, Tami Lynne's pediatrician, testified on behalf of the prosecution saying Tinning had dismissed his suggestion that, due to her sibling's deaths, she should install a specialized alarm device enabling the monitoring of the baby's breathing and heart rate. Two additional prosecution witnesses Dr. Marie Valdes-Dapena of Miami, FL president of the SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) Foundation and Dr. Thomas Oram, the medical examiner who performed the baby's autopsy—said they diagnosed that Tami Lynne was smothered to death with a soft object.
After the six-week trial, the jury deliberated for 23 hours across three days leading to the conviction of Tinning, 44, to one count of second-degree murder. During their deliberation, jurors called for a read-back of the portions of Joseph Tinning's testimony recounting his wife's alleged confession to State Police. In his testimony, Joseph said that he had a five-minute conversation with Marybeth Tinning following the police questioning, she told him, 'I killed Tami.' She was acquitted by the seven-man, five-woman jury for the count of 'deliberately' causing the infant's death, but was convicted of murder by 'depraved indifference to human life' count. Tinning placed her hands over her eyes and sobbed quietly as the verdict was announced. Later her husband, Joseph, said "I still think she's innocent." Judge Clifford Harrigan immediately vacated Tinning's $100,000 bail, and mandated she be held in the Schenectady County Jail, pending her sentencing trial.
After her trial, she received a sentence of 20 years to life, five years shorter than the maximum penalty for this crime and imprisoned at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women.
After her conviction, she appealed on the grounds that her confession was not voluntarily given and that her conviction was not supported by sufficient evidence. In 1988, her appeal was denied by the NY State Supreme Court's Appellate Division.