Alabama woman charged with killing her three children

(CNN) -- Police in Huntsville, Alabama, have charged a woman with capital murder in the deaths of her three children, police spokesman Wendell Johnson told CNN Saturday.

Natashay Yvonne Ward, 33, is charged with killing Shanieka Y. Ward, 11; Latricia Ward, 9; and Christopher O. Ward, 8.

Police found the children's bodies on the floor of three separate bedrooms in their apartment in west Huntsville Friday afternoon, Johnson said. There were no beds in the rooms, he said.

Authorities are not saying when the children died, the causes of death or what evidence they had against Natashay Ward. The children never returned to school after the winter break, Johnson said.

Some of their family members went to the apartment, Johnson said, but Ward would not let them in. Utilities were cut off to the apartment on January 12, and family members put some money together to have the utilities turned back on, he said.

More: http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/02/05/alabama.killings/

God what a tragedy. We are seeing way to many stories like this lately.

My children are about the same ages of the Ward kids...breaks my heart whenever I hear stories like this. Sounds as if the mom may have been depressed! RIP Shanieka, Latricia and Christopher

no furniture.

We live in harsh uncaring times. On the surface it seems that we as a society are as culpable (if not moreso) as the mother.

As for the woman, remember: innocent until proven guilty.

But if she is guilty, may she rot in hell.

How uncouth!

Feed the hungry, clothe the poor, visit the sick. Have we forgotten? What about our forgotten?

</sarcasm> :eyes:

women and men are killing their children's... I wonder if this has anything to do with lack of jobs and can't support their childrern's. So say... When are people are going to wake up???

with utilities turned off.no lights and possibly no heat......no electric .no cooking..no hot water for showers or to do clothes.....

I'm so sorry for the children..I wish someone could or would have intervened and offered to take her for help.........

RIP little ones.........we weep for you. :cry:

The utilities in Huntsville are as understanding and punitive as the mob.

Other industrialized societies have a safety net so that those who fall on hard times can't fall all the way down.

Here, if you fall, there's nothing to stop you and the next landing is homelessness (and hopelessness).

I cannot imagine the state of mind this poor woman reached in order to kill her children. But it's not hard to think that she would blame herself and not want her kids to become homeless.

What a heartless nation we have become.

Many people who are borderline personalities anyway tend to the "If I can't have/take care of them, nobody will". The same reason some men and women can't let go of a SO is very much the same reason many women will still refuse to turn their children over for adoption or foster care when they can't take care of them.

If I take the reported frequency of these sorts of cases, I notice that economic disadvantages and high stress situations (both of which tend to lead to "all or nothing" type of thinking) are behind any rise in deaths in struggling families. The parent may love the children desperately, but if s/he is unable to raise them, it's the end of the world to them.

In cases like theses, all it takes is one wave of overwhelming depression and the anger that goes with it, and the aftermath is tragedy.

Haele

It's all about Bush's supposed culture of life. He devalues life overseas and then pretends to be shocked when it is devalued in the US.

(including mental health care)

...any different than when we weren't blasted by it on every newscast.

:eyes: Well, give that man the KSOTO Award!


(KSOTO = Keen Sense Of The Obvious)

We see all kinds of ugly consequences triggered by the stress of poverty. Poverty can do a real number on someone. If they have a propensity for mental illness, the stress of poverty can create some very destructive behaviors. Factor in the rise of the conservative religious cult and watch child abuse rates rise.

Crime rates in general also rises as the poverty rate rises. The government only steps in when the crime rate is so bad, that they must get control of it. Some speculate this is the primary reason that social programs were created: to keep the crime rate under control. We cannot have white upper class folks being killed so others can eat, no can we? Remember the peasant revolts? Same dynamic.

It's sad that black single mothers are the poorest segment of our society. That tells us quite a lot about sexism and racism.

There's more than our share of fundies in this part of the bible belt, but that is not a neighborhood in which you will find a lot of them. They're too busy trying to keep a roof over their head to waste time on waiting for the "rapture."

make this tragedy a pretext for attacking religious people or Southerners, since that's what lately passes for serious political discussion in these parts, and I have to say I'm very surprised that it took so long.

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</sarcasm>
Life isn't a 45 minute CSU where you can have all the answers tied up in a pretty package with all good people vindicated and the guilty damned by man and god. Our society is most likely as much at fault as the mother in this one.

How do we punish ourselves?

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Afterall she probably had a color tv and dvd player. How can you be poor with electronics? Nevermind that this stuff is cheaper than food.

And we ARE seeing way too much of this stuff lately. It's like a nightmare.

Julie

history. We are exposed it more by the 24/7 news cycle plus it is 'sensational' news in a susposedly civilized society.

There should be help in our society for people who need it...particularly children and, by extension, their parents.

So much for "compassionate conservatism." :evilfrown:

LALALALALA...

This was in my home town and hit the local news way before it hit CNN.

If he arrived at the murder scene, where was he when his kids didn't return to school?

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (AP) — The mother of three children found dead in a Huntsville apartment has confessed to starving her children, police said Saturday.

<snip>

Officers found the bodies of Shanieka Ward, 11; Latricia Ward, 9; and Christopher Ward, 8, on the floor in three bedrooms Friday, police spokesman Wendell Johnson said.

<snip>

Johnson said relatives told police they had been trying to visit the family for weeks but Ward would not open the door. Officials said utilities in the apartment had been turned off since Jan. 12, and managers of the apartment complex had been preparing to evict the family. Ward was single and "took care of her kids," said Leetha McCaulley, who managed the apartment complex until October.

After her car broke down last year, Ward "used to walk the kids to school every day," McCaulley said.

"It was just her and those kids," she said. "She was quiet. Paid her rent on time."

Complete story: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-02-06-ala-children_x.htm