Cyrus
11-24-2004, 06:55 AM
DALLAS (AP) -- When a mother admitted killing her baby daughter by severing the child's arms this week, she joined a high-profile list of Texas women with histories of mental illness who have killed their children in gruesome fashion.
The state has had at least four similar cases in recent years. Andrea Yates drowned her five children in the family's Houston bathtub in 2001.
Deanna Laney bashed her three sons' skulls with rocks last year, killing two and maiming a toddler. She said God told her to do it.
A mother from suburban Dallas drowned her daughters last fall, and a woman in Brownsville is accused of helping her common-law husband behead her three children.
"Texas seems to be a lightning rod," said George Parnham, the Houston attorney who defended Yates. "I don't necessarily go with the idea that we're wackos down here."
Dena Schlosser, 35, was charged with capital murder Monday after calmly telling a 911 operator that she had cut off the arms of 11-month-old Margaret. Police found Schlosser sitting in her living room, covered in blood, a church hymn playing in the background.
CNN Report (http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/11/23/severed.arms.ap/index.html)
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The state has had at least four similar cases in recent years. Andrea Yates drowned her five children in the family's Houston bathtub in 2001.
Deanna Laney bashed her three sons' skulls with rocks last year, killing two and maiming a toddler. She said God told her to do it.
A mother from suburban Dallas drowned her daughters last fall, and a woman in Brownsville is accused of helping her common-law husband behead her three children.
"Texas seems to be a lightning rod," said George Parnham, the Houston attorney who defended Yates. "I don't necessarily go with the idea that we're wackos down here."
Dena Schlosser, 35, was charged with capital murder Monday after calmly telling a 911 operator that she had cut off the arms of 11-month-old Margaret. Police found Schlosser sitting in her living room, covered in blood, a church hymn playing in the background.
CNN Report (http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/11/23/severed.arms.ap/index.html)
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