Filicide and Parental Profiling

Written by Blaze.

Twelve years ago, a three-year-old girl disappeared without a trace while on holiday with her family in the Algarve. Since that fateful evening of 3rd May 2007, the whole world has been repeatedly told, despite the conspicuous absence of a single shred of supporting evidence, that the explanation for her disappearance – the only explanation – is stranger abduction. Like millions of other people who didn’t come down in the last shower, I do not buy that story. Here, I explore another possibility – no less awful, I grant you, but marginally more credible, especially in light of what little evidence we do have.

This article looks at filicide in Britain, America, and Australia over the past 20 years, and as such has some very distressing and harrowing content. My intention is not to accuse the McCanns (or anyone) of having murdered Madeleine, but to identify the complicated issues we are up against in trying to determine what crime/s were actually committed against her, and by whom, and – trickiest of all – why, if indeed there is a ‘why’. And also to illustrate how 'murder' is no more outrageous a theory than 'covered-up accident', and certainly no less plausible than abduction by an opportunistic fleet-footed child-stealing stranger.

In Australia, at least one child is killed by their parent (or other 'guardian') every fortnight. In the U.K., it is estimated that two children a week die due to maltreatment at home. In the USA, there are 400-500 filicide arrests every year, although according to data from the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS), 49 States reported a total of 1,700 child fatalities in 2016 alone (see https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubpdfs/fatality.pdf), which means nearly five children died from abuse or neglect every day. More than 70% of children killed by their own parents/ guardians were six years old or younger.

Often a child dies due to parental neglect/ negligence (rather than sustained physical abuse), momentary loss of control, distraction/ oversight, reckless behaviour, intoxication, ignorance/ incapacity or inadequacy, extreme stress or exhaustion... For example, inadvertent bathtub drownings, or accidentally leaving an infant in a hot car. In these situations, the parent invariably did not intend for the child to die.

Because I don't believe that whatever happened to Madeleine McCann was entirely accidental or unintentional, this post is specifically about the small but significant minority of child deaths caused by parents that are deliberate or even planned - in other words, murder. (Although often the charge of murder is reduced due to 'diminished responsibility' - for example Andrea Yates, detailed below, was found 'not guilty by reason of insanity'.)

 Again, I reiterate that I'm not outright accusing either of the McCanns, or anyone else, of murder; I'm offering it up as a consideration that needs to be seriously examined before it can be conclusively eliminated. It is not ‘ludicrous’ or ‘evil’ at all to suggest that a child who has not been seen for 12 years was murdered back in 2007, and her body hidden so as never to be found. In fact, it’s arguably the most plausible scenario, given the inordinate amount of cash ostensibly spent on ‘finding’ her. Everyone has a right to ask questions about a nonsensical, inconsistent and questionable story, and certainly, we all have the right to refuse to believe the unbelievable.

The table below shows 'motivations for filicide'. I’m not convinced that any of these apply in this case, at least not as one clear standalone reason, although certainly, it is worth considering that two or three of them might feasibly have some relevance.

'Motivation' and 'profile' (as explained below) really do set this case apart from every other missing child case in which the parents are or were considered suspects. Even the McCanns bestow their purported 'abductor' with a fantastical (indeed preposterous) motive for stealing away their daughter - i.e. to offer her a charmed life filled with love and laughter. A clear, astonishing example of this frankly insane delusion is when Gerry paraphrases (some might say wilfully misinterprets) something that Ernie Allen, the Chief Executive of the International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children, had assured him: that "not all" abducted children are taken to be harmed or killed, and as such, who's to say that Madeleine isn't out there somewhere, healthy and happy and completely alive, and furthermore she "might not even realise she's missing"?

This unabashedly batshit performance by a visibly elated (possibly high) Gerry in 2011 is definitely worth watching, and my challenge to you is to watch this 80-second clip of a beaming father-of-an-abducted-child waxing lyrical about how young children are ‘incrrrrrredibly adaptable’ without incredulously muttering to yourself 'what the entire fuck?': https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNt4mV5csi4

So perhaps we need to ask a few uncomfortable questions, such as: who (if anyone) has actually benefited from Madeleine's mysterious and still-unexplained disappearance? Has Madeleine benefited? Of course she hasn't. Has the Algarve tourism industry benefited? Well, that's also a big nope. Have any of the T7 benefited? Whether we believe them to be complicit or not, accusations of paedophilia, child neglect and perverting the course of justice will haunt all of them to their dying days, and their names are associated forevermore with a scurrilous, shameful scandal that virtually the entire world knows about and will not forget. So even their 'freedom' comes at a heavy price. And so what about the 'abductor'? Even if he exists (let's assume for just a second he does), how exactly has he 'benefited' from capturing the world's most recognizable, most widely publicised and searched-for little girl? If he wanted money, the reward offered by News of the World in summer 2007 would have dwarfed whatever he might have received in exchange for his precious abductee, who overnight became a liability for any child-trafficking criminal due to the immediate and unimpeded actions of her parents.

What are such immoral lowlifes likely to do when their stolen 'asset' becomes a 'liability'?

So again I ask: who has benefited? And is anybody still benefiting from this tragedy, 12 years on?

Below I've outlined just a small selection, in chronological order, of reported filicide cases in Britain, America, and Australia since 2000. I'm aware that sadly there are many more: possibly tens of thousands in total worldwide over the past two decades, although it is difficult (if not impossible) to obtain an accurate figure. In addition to these confirmed murders, there have also been a few cases of missing (presumed dead) children who have still not been found – three-year-old William Tyrrell (Australia, 2014) and two-year-old DeOrr Kunz Jr (America, 2015) to name just two.

There are of course also many cases of filicide prior to 2000; for example, murderous mothers of the 1980s and 1990s included Susan Smith, Susan Eubanks, Diane Downs, and Dora Buenrostro.

And it's not always youngsters (under-18s) who are killed by their parents: in 1984, on the day before his 45th birthday, R&B singer Marvin Gaye was shot dead by his father.





The point of this post is not to gratuitously speculate over the reality of family violence but to consider this horrific, unthinkable crime in relation to 'criminal profiling'. Every single one of these killings was perpetrated by a biological parent (and/or step-parent or other 'caregiver') who in some way 'fitted the profile' - in other words, had a history of mental illness/ emotional instability, aggression, religious fundamentalism, crime, alcoholism/ drug abuse or family dysfunction, and was typically 'on the radar' of local authorities/ social services. For example, while Andrea Yates was described by those who knew her as a "wonderful mother", sadly the deaths of her children occurred as a result of unchecked and compounded postpartum psychosis which, along with her involvement in a religious cult, sent her into an inexorable downward spiral of murderous madness.

One point we all must concede about the McCanns: they do not 'fit' the profile. At all. Nothing about them appears to align with anything a seasoned criminal profiler might realistically theorise about whatever dreadful fate befell their daughter. This is (partly) what has made it so easy for them to 'pass the blame' - all of it - onto their imagined, maligned 'predator', the elusive 'baddie' that has always, by necessity, loomed large in their narrative.

If we really were obliged to take them at face value, the McCanns are to blame for nothing. Just behold their moral and intellectual superiority! They are well-educated, affluent, righteous, successful, apparently devoted and responsible parents of longed-for children in an apparently loving marriage, with no (confirmed) mental health issues, no criminal record and no history of violence or drug abuse - as far as we can ascertain. But…. something just doesn’t add up, does it?

In terms of their characteristics, backgrounds and presumed motives (to end their child's life and/or cover up her death)... as Gerald quite boldly stated in his 'embedded confessions' interview with Rahni Sadler, "you'd have to start with WHY?"... and yes, it simply makes NO LOGICAL SENSE to outright accuse the McCanns of anything more serious than negligence, narcissism, greed and (at a push) misappropriation of funds.

But we do keep coming back to that colossal loaded question, as demanded by Gerald: WHY? Yes Professor McCann, we really must start with WHY. This is the question that will crack the case, and as with most crimes, it is the most problematic to address or definitively answer. Many crimes, particularly murder, are quite simply senseless.

And so, for the final time, I ask: WHO (if indeed anyone) has benefited from the as-yet-unspecified crimes committed against Madeleine McCann?

Maybe, just maybe, the answer to that question can help us to start tackling the WHY. See source 14, ‘One possible motive’, and remember how Gerry McCann, on camera as early as 25th May 2007, compared the loss of his daughter to exceeding his student overdraft limit. And then miraculously, once the fund had been set up, some might say with indecent haste – yet still with no positive signs of being reunited with his abducted little girl – he felt chirpy again, “buoyed” according to his brother, John, uplifted, brighter" as his Dear Old Ma is quoted as saying, or “back in the black” to use his own mystifying words…

Once again with the oft-uttered phrase “what the almighty fuck” at the forefront of my mind, I ask you, what can we infer about such hideously stupefying statements? What must we infer from them? Reducing his daughter to a bank balance, and doing so without the slightest blush of hesitation; indeed with a discernible smile on his face. (See from 10:10 here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GshQL5BNp5M

There are usually clues that are (or should be) obvious to those who are acquainted with parents who end up killing their children. "Prior to a homicide, lots of lay people know these men and women are having difficulty parenting. The public has to be better educated in recognizing how to intervene and how to support child abuse prevention". (Source 7)

And, interestingly (source 8): "The women who killed with intent are very different from the other groups. They tend to be older. Many of them went to great lengths to adopt or to get pregnant. I mean, they’re often described as perfect parents. It's always stunning how afterwards, people are like: 'I can’t believe she killed her kids. She was such a good parent."



Filicide since 2000:

In 2000, eight-year-old Victoria Climbie died after a relentless campaign of sadistic abuse perpetrated by her great-aunt Marie-Thérèse Kouao, who had been Victoria's appointed guardian since 1998. Kouao's boyfriend Carl Manning was also convicted of child cruelty and murder. The poor little girl experienced unimaginable daily torture for the final two years of her life, failed by the "blinding incompetence" of the authorities who bore witness to the many signs of abuse: "During her life in Britain, Climbié was known to four local authorities (four social services departments and three housing departments), two child protection police teams, two hospitals, an NSPCC centre, and a few local churches". (See source 1a and 1b.) Kouao was arrested on the day that Climbié died, and Manning the following day. Kouao reportedly told the police, "It is terrible, I have just lost my child". (Remind you of anyone ?)


"On June 20, 2001, Andrea Yates drowned each of her five children (from left to right on the photograph below) Luke, Paul, John, Noah, and Mary, aged six months to seven years, in her bathtub. She was charged with multiple counts of first-degree murder with death penalty specifications. Her earlier life provides no clues that she would later commit an infamous crime. She graduated valedictorian of her high school class of 608 students. Upon completion of her Bachelor's degree in nursing, she became a highly regarded nurse at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. After her marriage, she was determined to be a 'super mom.' Every witness at her trial agreed that she was a wonderful mother. (See source 2 for more details.) Mrs. Yates's attorneys entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity (NGRI) in her first trial in 2002."



                                                                                                                                                               













Late one night in May 2003, Deanna Laney led her two oldest sons, eight-year-old Joshua and six-year-old Luke (right), outside her home, where she proceeded to smash in their skulls with a giant rock. She too was found not guilty by reason of insanity.








China Arnold was accused of killing her three-week-old daughter Paris (left) in a microwave oven in Dayton, Ohio, on Aug. 30, 2005. Arnold was sentenced to life in prison without parole Sept. 8, 2008. Judge Mary Wiseman told Arnold during the trial, "No adjectives exist to adequately describe this heinous atrocity. This act is shocking and utterly abhorrent for a civilized society."

The death of Peter Connelly (right) in London, U.K., in 2007 at the age of just 15 months - "Baby P" as he was referred to by the media - was a clear-cut case of appalling parental neglect and horrifying abuse, enabled by a series of catastrophic failures of duty by social services.

Four-year-old Daniel Pelka (left) was murdered by his mother and her partner in Coventry, U.K., in March 2012; he had been starved and severely beaten. Both his mother, Magdalena Łuczak, and her partner, Mariusz Krężołek, were imprisoned for life but died within three years of their sentencing.

Ellie Butler, a six-year-old British girl, was beaten to death by her monstrous father in 2013. See source 4.

When the news of 3-year-old Mikaeel Kular's disappearance broke in January 2014, many of us knew, almost instinctively, that his mother was responsible. The reported circumstances were, to say the least, highly suspicious, and sure enough it later emerged that the internet search history of Mikaeel's 34-year-old mother, Rosdeep Adekoya, included "I love all my children except one", "why am I so aggressive with my son" and "how to get rid of bruises". (OFM very briefly featured the news "in support of the search for Mikaeel" on their Facebook page, but swiftly pulled it as soon as it became clear that the poor little boy had been beaten to death by his mother.) See source 5.

In 2014, in one of Australia's worst cases of filicide, Raina Mersane Ina Thaiday stabbed to death seven of her biological children and her niece, aged between 18 months and 14 years old. Their names were Malili Warria, Vita Thaiday, Shantae Warria, La'Torrence Warria, Azariah Willie, Daniel Willie, Rodney Willie, and Patranella Willie.  Thaiday, also known as Mersane Warria, was eventually found unfit for trial due to suffering a psychotic episode triggered by undiagnosed schizophrenia at the time of the murders. [Note: I wish to make it very clear that schizophrenics are actually rarely violent - more often they are the victims of violence, and do not deserve the bad press they get.]

 

Five-year-old Andrew 'AJ' Freund Jr was reported missing in an eerily calm 911 call by his father on 18th April 2019. The boy had already been dead for three days, and his body was discovered a week later, wrapped in plastic and buried in a shallow grave near Woodstock, about 10 miles from the family home in Crystal Lake, Illinois. Both his parents were promptly charged with first-degree murder, among other charges, and held on $5m bail.

Sources:

1. Victoria Climbie: (a) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Victoria_Climbié

(b)   http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/2062590.stm

2. Filicide in the United States: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5282617/

3. Caylee Anthony (a) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Caylee_Anthony

(b) https://www.aetv.com/real-crime/casey-anthony-life-now

4. Ellie Butler https://www.facebook.com/groups/JusticeForMadeleine/permalink/1034807456615328?sfns=mo

5. Mikaeel Kular: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/aug/25/rosdeep-adekoya-jailed-11-years-killing-son-mikaeel-kular

6. Moms who killed their kids: https://thoughtcatalog.com/jim-goad/2014/04/19-moms-who-killed-their-kids/ 

7. Mothers who kill their children...: https://www.thoughtco.com/mothers-who-kill-their-children-971322

8. ... Aren't so different from the rest of us: https://www.google.com.au/amp/s/www.vice.com/amp/en_au/article/mb59jp/mothers-who-kill-their-children-arent-so-different-from-the-rest-of-us

9. Domestic filicide https://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2019-02-08/mothers-murdering-their-children-on-the-rise-domestic-filicide/10793162

10. A parent killing a child happens more often than we think: https://www.google.com.au/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2017/07/07/health/filicide-parents-killing-kids-stats-trnd/index.html

11. Filicide: Mental illness in those who kill their children: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0058981&type=printable

12. Understanding the triggers for filicide will help prevent it:

https://www.google.com.au/amp/s/theconversation.com/amp/understanding-the-triggers-for-filicide-will-help-prevent-it-86333

13. Maternal filicide in a cohort of English Serious Case Reviews:

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00737-018-0820-7

14. One possible motive? http://mccannfundfraud.info/2011/01/mccanns-were-broke-in-2007/