FULL TEXT (Article 1 of 2): Little Rock, Ark.
– A woman accused in the suffocation deaths of four children over an eight-year period should have been slopped
by public officials who knew she was mentally ill, her boyfriend said.
“My
daughter should not be dead,” said George Paxton, 36, of Little Rock.
A
preliminary hearing was scheduled in Little Rock municipal court, today for
Debra Sue Tuggle, a former mental patient.
Ms. Tuggle
is charged with first-degree murder. in the 1932 death of Paxton’s 2-year-old
daughter,. Tomekla Shenee Paxton, and the earlier deaths of three of her own
children.
Thomas
Lee Bates, 2 months, and William Earl Henry, 21 months, both died in 1974. Ronald
Earl Johnson, 9 months, died in 197U.
Charges
were pending in the 1979 death of Ms, Tuggle’s fourth child — Terranz Andre
Tuggle, 2 ½ months — at Malvern, Ark., where Ms. Tuggle once lived, said Deputy
Prosecutor Ed Scrimshire. Police said they did not know the motive for the
slayings.
“She
had always been kind and gentle to my children,” Paxton said. “I don’t hate
her. She’s a sick person.”
The
deaths were first attributed to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome and pneumonia.
Police began their investigation in November. after Pulaski Counly Coroner
Steve Nawojczyk became suspicious about so many SIDS-deaths in one family.
“We
launched an investigation beginning with the last case and from that we worked
backwards.”
State
Medical Examiner Dr. Fahmy MaLak recently determined that Paxton’s daughter
died of suffocation rather than pneumonia.
“How
could Ibis woman kill five kids?” Paxton said. “Hospital people slick together.
They’re not going to say, ‘We really messed up.’“
Ms,
Tuggle had a history of mental illness, police said. But Paxton. who met her on
a blind date, said Ms. Toggle’s doctor assured him the woman was well before
Paxton let her move in with him in early 1982 to help care for his three
children.
[“Child-killer
suspect ‘sick,’ boyfriend says,” syndicated (UPI), Altoona Mirror (Pa.), Mar.
22, 1984, p. A5]
***
FULL
TEXT (Article 2 of 2): Little Rock, Ark.– People were aware Debra Sue Tuggle’s
children were dying, but no one suspected she was killing them because of a
“breakdown in the system,” a coroner says.
“It
scares the hell out of me that somebody could get away with killing five people
over a period of eight or nine years,” coroner Steve Jawojczyk said Thursday.
Ms.
Tuggle, 26, a former mental patient, is accused of killing four of her children
and suspected in the death of a fifth.
“People
were aware her children were dying, but her stories were believable enough that
it wasn’t reported,” said Jawojczyk.. “This particular case was brought about
because of a breakdown in the system.” Ms. Tuggle appeared for a preliminary
hearing before Municipal Judge Andy Clark and was ordered held under $750,000
bond.
She was charged with first-degree murder in the 1982
drowning death of her boyfriend’s 2-year-old daughter, Tomekia Shenee Paxton, and
the suffocation deaths of her three sons, Thomas Lee Bates, 2 months, and
William Earl Henry, 21 months, in 1974, and Ronald Earl Johnson, 9 months, in
1976. Authorities in Malvern, Ark., where Ms. Tuggle once lived, are
investigating the 1979 death of Ms. Tuggle’s fourth child, Terranz Andrew
Tuggle, 2 ½ months.
[“Coroner: Faulty System Missing Deaths,” syndicated (UPI),
Pharos-Tribune (Logansport, Ind.), Mar. 23, 1984, p. 9]
***
***
For more cases of this type, see Serial Baby-Killer Moms.
More cases, see: Female Serial Killers of Africa & the African Diaspora
***
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