Juanita Louise Carr, Oregon Serial Killer Mom - 1950

FULL TEXT: Fossil, Ore., Sep. 27 – District Attorney George L. Durek of Wheeler county said today Mrs. Juanita Louise Carr, 23, has confessed that she killed her three children over a period of a year and a half.

Mrs. Carr, after extensive questioning, told authorities she dropped one child on the floor and that she smothered two others in their crib, Dukek said.

Sheriff Malcolm T. Keys and Dukek said they had been working quietly on the case for several weeks. All the children were buried at Prineville, Ore., apparently without autopsy, Dukek reported.

The district attorney said Mrs. Carr confessed she killed her son, Donald, 2 months, by dropping him on the floor Jan. 15, 1949; that she smothered a daughter, Patricia, 2 years old, on Jan. 27, 1950. The Carrs have no other children.

~ Sorry Each Time ~

“She said she was sorry after each time she killed a child,” Dukek said.

~ Thrown on Floor ~

Dukek quoted Mrs. Carr as saying she threw Donald on the floor after she had finished feeding him. He hit his head and died.

“Mrs. Carr said she put Donald’s body in bed and told her-brother-in-law, who was in the house, that she had dropped the boy when she slipped going into the kitchen,” Durek said.

Durek said Mrs. Carr told him she smothered Gary by “rolling over on top of him” in bed and killed her daughter the same way.

“In the girl’s case, she said she put her hand over her mouth also,” Dukek said.

Dukek said Mrs. Carr gave no specific reason for having killed the children except that “at times she didn’t like them.”

Mrs. Carr is short and dark-haired. She and her husband, George, live at Mitchell, 25 miles south of Fossil. They were married Oct. 23, 1946. He is employed at a lumber mill at Mitchell.

Dukek said a formal charge will be filed against Mrs. Carr later today. She was held under arrest at the Wheeler county courthouse.

Investigation of the three deaths was started by state police and the sheriff’s office after the death of the third child.

Dukek said all three children were pronounced dead in Prineville and death certificates signed there. Prineville is the seat of adjoining Crook county.

[“Fossil Woman Admits Murder Of 3 Children,” The Bend Bulletin (Or.), Sep. 27, 1950, p. 1]

***

Victims:

Donald Carr, son, 3-months, died Jan. 15, 1949

Gary Carr, son, 2, Jan. 27, 1950

Patricia Carr, 3, daughter, Sep. 15, 1950

***

For more cases of this type, see Serial Baby-Killer Moms.

***

1558-12/31/20]

***