Roxie
09-26-2006, 02:52 AM
Friend admits killing three children
26th September 2006, 8:00 WST
A woman accused of killing her pregnant best friend and her fetus also has confessed to killing the friend’s three young children and stuffing their bodies into a washing machine and dryer at their apartment.
Ace Hart, coroner for St Clair County in Illinois, said yesterday that preliminary autopsies on the dead children, aged seven, two and one, appeared to show that they had been drowned — but not in the washing machine. Other tests were being made to see if they had been drugged or poisoned.
Mr Hart said there were no signs of physical abuse or trauma on the children.
Prosecutors in the city of St Louis accused Tiffany Hall, 24, at the weekend of cutting a foetus from the womb of Jimella Tunstall, 23, last week. Mother and foetus died.
Ms Hall was charged with the wilful murder of Ms Tunstall and the unborn child. She was not charged over the deaths of the three children.
Authorities suspect Ms Tunstall was killed on or about September 15.
Mr Hart said that that day Ms Hall had called police to a park, saying she had given birth to a stillborn child.
Police said she was arrested after she told her boyfriend, a sailor who was home on leave, during the baby’s funeral that the baby was not his and that she had killed the mother to get it.
Ms Tunstall’s body was found last Thursday. An autopsy showed she had bled to death after getting an abdominal wound from a sharp object, believed to be scissors. Authorities believe her womb was cut open after she had been knocked unconscious. A pair of scissors was found near the body.
Authorities immediately began a frantic search for Ms Tunstall’s other children, who had last been seen with Ms Hall the previous Monday.
They went to the family apartment in East St Louis on Friday, looking for photographs of the children but did not notice anything amiss.
Mr Hart said: “Who would be looking in the washer and dryer?”
He said Ms Hall later told police where to look for them. She had told investigators she killed the children at another place, then hauled them home and hid them in the washing machine and dryer.
“By Saturday, you could find them by the smell,” Mr Hart said.
The oldest, DeMond, was found in the dryer and two-year-old Ivan and one-year-old Jinela were in the washing machine. Two of the children were naked and the third was wearing only underpants.
“At least they’re at peace with their mum,” LaDonna Tunstall, the dead woman’s stepmother, said.
As for Ms Hall, she said: “God is going to have to deal with her.”
Visitors contributed to a mountain of stuffed animal toys outside the Tunstall apartment, its door crisscrossed with police evidence tape.
Illinois State Police Capt. Craig Koehler said Ms Hall’s two children were “safe and sound”.
Ms Hall is likely to appear in court today to be formally charged. The murder count could be punishable by the death penalty.
26th September 2006, 8:00 WST
A woman accused of killing her pregnant best friend and her fetus also has confessed to killing the friend’s three young children and stuffing their bodies into a washing machine and dryer at their apartment.
Ace Hart, coroner for St Clair County in Illinois, said yesterday that preliminary autopsies on the dead children, aged seven, two and one, appeared to show that they had been drowned — but not in the washing machine. Other tests were being made to see if they had been drugged or poisoned.
Mr Hart said there were no signs of physical abuse or trauma on the children.
Prosecutors in the city of St Louis accused Tiffany Hall, 24, at the weekend of cutting a foetus from the womb of Jimella Tunstall, 23, last week. Mother and foetus died.
Ms Hall was charged with the wilful murder of Ms Tunstall and the unborn child. She was not charged over the deaths of the three children.
Authorities suspect Ms Tunstall was killed on or about September 15.
Mr Hart said that that day Ms Hall had called police to a park, saying she had given birth to a stillborn child.
Police said she was arrested after she told her boyfriend, a sailor who was home on leave, during the baby’s funeral that the baby was not his and that she had killed the mother to get it.
Ms Tunstall’s body was found last Thursday. An autopsy showed she had bled to death after getting an abdominal wound from a sharp object, believed to be scissors. Authorities believe her womb was cut open after she had been knocked unconscious. A pair of scissors was found near the body.
Authorities immediately began a frantic search for Ms Tunstall’s other children, who had last been seen with Ms Hall the previous Monday.
They went to the family apartment in East St Louis on Friday, looking for photographs of the children but did not notice anything amiss.
Mr Hart said: “Who would be looking in the washer and dryer?”
He said Ms Hall later told police where to look for them. She had told investigators she killed the children at another place, then hauled them home and hid them in the washing machine and dryer.
“By Saturday, you could find them by the smell,” Mr Hart said.
The oldest, DeMond, was found in the dryer and two-year-old Ivan and one-year-old Jinela were in the washing machine. Two of the children were naked and the third was wearing only underpants.
“At least they’re at peace with their mum,” LaDonna Tunstall, the dead woman’s stepmother, said.
As for Ms Hall, she said: “God is going to have to deal with her.”
Visitors contributed to a mountain of stuffed animal toys outside the Tunstall apartment, its door crisscrossed with police evidence tape.
Illinois State Police Capt. Craig Koehler said Ms Hall’s two children were “safe and sound”.
Ms Hall is likely to appear in court today to be formally charged. The murder count could be punishable by the death penalty.