There has been a big fuss in recent days over a woman in Ohio who disappeared in the middle of a shopping trip. Almost immediately, search parties were formed, churches passed out flies describing the “missing mom” and her family was seen on TV agonizing over the disappearance. A Facebook page asking for leads collected 18000 supporters in a matter of two days. In the midst of all this, it is beginning to look like the woman has run off with some guy she hung out with at a convenience store. The whole thing causes one to sympathize with the husband and family she victimized, not to mention all the people who went all out to look for her, or even the wife of the guy she ran away with. But of course, it is her children who suffered the most. But it could have been worse, much worse, as you will see in the following early celebration of Mother’s Day:
1. Andrea Yates
In 2001, Houston mother of five Andrea Yates drowned all of her children in the family bathtub. Ignoring his wife’s long term mental illness, Russell Yates defied medical warnings and left Andrea alone with the children while he went to work. Andrea felt that she had failed her children by not following the extreme practices of her preacher and that they were all doomed to hell anyway. Yates was calm as she called emergency response to notify them of the murders. The idiot husband believed that with treatment Andrea would be able to bear MORE of his children. Thankfully nobody agreed. An initial conviction was overturned and Yates was found not guilty by reason of insanity. She is still confined in Texas and will not be getting out anytime soon. Her husband HAS gone on to have more children with another woman. No word on their religious affiliation.
2. Terri Milbrandt
n 2003 Terri Milbrandt of Urbana, Ohio, decided she needed a new illicit source of income. She had previously done time for credit card and welfare fraud, but she didn’t learn her lesson. Preying on the kindness of a prototypical Midwestern town, Milbrandt told everyone she knew that her seven year old daughter had leukemia. Only trouble was that it was a lie. This woman shaved her daughters head, fed her sleeping pills, and put her into therapy to help her cope with impending death. A stupid husband (do you see a pattern here?) claimed to know nothing about the scam. The good people of Urbana baked cookies, held fundraisers and opened their wallets to the tune of $31,000. It took a teacher at Hannah’s school to uncover the deception-Hannah had a head of healthy hair under her ever present ball cap. The Milbrandts were both sent to prison. The little girl was quoted as being happy she wasn’t sick, unlike the scum who brought her into the world.
3.Kenisha Berry
Kenisha Berry might have gotten away with her crime had she not duplicated it. The Texas woman used duct tape to bind her four day old son and left him to suffocate in a dumpster near her home. It was six years later that Berry’s daughter Parris was found in the same spot, bitten severely by ants but alive. Berry confessed to both crimes. A death sentence in the murder was commuted to life in prison with parole possible at 40 years, but the charges in the abandonment of Parris will likely keep the former DAY CARE WORKER (!!) in prison for life. Parris and Berry’s three other children are in foster care.
4. Jolynn Ritchie
Finding a photo of this monster proved to be impossible, although the 24 year old Ohio mother was all over television in July of 1995 when her four year old daughter Samantha went missing. The community rallied around the mother. All of Dayton seemingly searched the decayed area around Ritchie’s home. When the little girl was found in six feet of water at an abandoned foundry, the remorseless mother confessed. Little Samantha had interrupted Jolynn and Ernest Brooks in a sex act. According to Brooks, Ritchie beat her daughter with the cast covering her broken arm and with a wrench. Brooks then disposed of the body. During a TV interview she gave before Samantha was found, Ritchie referred to a similar case, saying “I ain’t no Susan Smith!” Well…Ritchie is serving life in prison for her deeds. Brooks got off somewhat easier after being convicted of gross abuse of a corpse. His whereabouts are unknown, but it’s a good bet he is in prison for something else by now. Which brings us to…
5. Susan Smith
In 1994, Susan Smith was in the middle of a divorce from her husband, an affair with her stepfather, and a new relationship with the handsome Tom Findlay, son of her boss. Findlay sent Smith a Dear John letter saying among other things that he didn’t want to be responsible for anyone’s children. That letter was later found inside Smith’s car, along with her two young sons, Alex and David, when it was pulled from John Long Lake in Union, South Carolina. After watching the car sink into the lake, Smith constructed a story in which she had been carjacked by a “black man”. It took nine days to finally get at the truth. In the meantime, Smith, like Jolynn Ritchie, appeared on TV pleading for the safe return of her kids. She was convicted and will serve at least until 2025. Her ex, David Smith, has pledged to attend her parole hearings to try and keep her in prison.
The next name on this list may be Florida “mom” Casey Anthony, whose daughter Kaylee was missing for a month before she reported it to police. The case has been all over the media, and Anthony’s trial will not begin until sometime next year, maybe around Mother’s Day.
