Marybeth Tinning, a Schenectady, New York, housewife, was convicted of killing eight of her nine children between 1972 and 1985. A ninth child died of natural causes. Tinning never explained her motives for killing her young children. The case raised concerns about why her husband Joseph, hospital physicians or law enforcement authorities did not suspect her earlier of foul play. Tinning's daughter, Jennifer, was only eight days old when she died on January 3, 1972. An autopsy listed the cause of death as acute meningitis. Because Jennifer never left the hospital after her birth,law enforcement officials later concluded that her death could not be attributed to the actions of her mother.

Less than three weeks after Jennifer's death, two-year-old Joseph Tinning, Jr. was pronounced dead on arrival at a different Schenectady hospital. Doctors blamed his death on a viral infection and seizure disorder, but no autopsy was performed to verify those...