Kathleen Folbigg: Baby killer or the unluckiest woman in the world?
Over a decade, Kathleen Folbigg gave birth to four babies, all of whom died before their 2nd birthday: Caleb at 19 days, Patrick at eight months, Sarah at 10 months and Laura at a year and a half.
in 2003, a jury convicted the Australian woman of smothering them. She was sentenced to 40 years in prison for murder and manslaughter. But 18 years into Folbigg’s sentence, 90 scientists have signed a petition arguing that the four children died of natural causes. Among the signatories are two Nobel laureates, along with the president of the Australian Academy of Science.
Kathleen Folbigg’s early life was marred with tragedy. She was just 18 months old when her father stabbed her mother to death after an argument. He spent 15 years in prison for the murder. Folbigg lived with relatives before eventually being put in foster care. She met her husband, Craig Folbigg, when she was just 15 years old. They married in 1987, and in 1989, she gave birth to their first child, Caleb, who died weeks later. His death was attributed to sudden infant death syndrome, or SIDS. Patrick died Feb. 13, 1991, his death certificate noting he was blind and choked due to epileptic fits. Sarah died Aug. 30, 1993, with SIDS listed as the cause. Laura died March 1, 1999. That time, a doctor recorded the cause of death as “undetermined,” citing the deaths of her siblings.
In May 1999, Craig Folbigg came across his wife’s diary. Alarmed by what he read, he soon gave it to police. Among the entries, Kathleen had written that Laura was “a fairly good-natured baby,” adding, “Thank goodness. It has saved her from the fate of her siblings. I think she was warned.” She also wrote, “I am my father’s daughter.” In another ominous entry, she wrote that Sarah “left. With a bit of help.”
Folbigg said the entries were “written from a point of me always blaming myself. I blamed myself for everything,” she said. “It’s just I took so much of the responsibility, because that’s, as mothers, what you do.”
In 2018 Folbigg’s attorneys asked geneticists to look at the case. Scientists sequenced her genome and the genomes of her children. They discovered that she and her daughters had a rare mutation in a gene called CALM2. The mutation can cause sudden death in infancy and childhood, the petition says. In a 2020 study, a team of researchers concluded that the variant changed Sarah’s and Laura’s heart rhythms and was a “reasonable explanation” for their deaths.
Further investigation found that Caleb and Patrick carried a different rare genetic variant that, in studies with mice, has been connected to epileptic deaths at a young age.
Jozef Gecz, a pediatric geneticist who signed the pardon petition, acknowledged to the news wire that there was stronger evidence of natural death in the girls’ cases. He said scientists are still studying potential genetic causes for the boys’ deaths.
“We know now from a lot of our work with families who are unfortunate in that they carry genetic risk that it does happen,” he said.
What do you think? Do the scientists findings prove reasonable doubt? Are the diary entries proof that she harmed her children, and the genetic defects merely a “lucky” coincidence?
Late edit: thank you u/callunablue for this link, which provides a lot more context for the diary entries:
https://www.smh.com.au/national/diary-of-mum-accused-of-killing-her-four-babies-20030406-gdgk1d.html## TLDR Summary: