Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, November 5, 1994                   TAG: 9411080022
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: UNION, S.C.                                LENGTH: Medium

WHAT MAKES MOTHERS KILL CHILDREN?

But what?

Psychologists and others who have studied women who kill their children say the crime may be horrific but is not without explanation or precedent. Often, severe depression or an unbearable ``pileup of stresses'' may trigger latent emotional or mental illness, authorities say.

``People don't want to believe it. Unfortunately, one of the lessons of this is: Hey, believe it. It happens,'' said Charles Ewing, a forensic psychologist at the State University of New York in Buffalo.

Of 9,576 American murder defendants in 1988, 258 were parents of the victim - and 55 percent of the time, the killer was the mother, according to a July study by the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics.

``Child abuse is the one violent crime that females commit as often as males do,'' said Bridgewater (Mass.) State College psychology Professor Elizabeth Kandel-Englander, noting that part of the reason is that mothers generally spend more time with their children than fathers do.

``Usually there's a complex of factors: the individual's victimization, current stresses and their own abilities to cope,'' said Glenda Kaufman-Kantor of the Family Research Lab at the University of New Hampshire.

Citing other cases, Kaufman-Kantor said those who kill are ``sometimes women who have very low self-esteem, or women who feel that they have the possibility of a relationship and the man doesn't want the responsibility of kids.''

Friday, a Columbia television station reported that Smith had been seeing a man named Tom Findlay, who broke up with her Oct. 18 because ``he was not ready to assume the responsibilities of being a father.'' In a separate report, CNN said investigators had found a letter to Smith from a boyfriend saying he ``did not want any kids around.''

``When there's a pileup of stresses, that can be a catalyst for someone who ... perhaps has an emotional illness,'' Kaufman-Kantor said. ``It seems so shocking and egregious when a woman kills her own children. That's because of the assumptions that we make about women - that they're patient, nurturing paragons. They're simply not.''

Post-partum depression is often blamed for infanticide, although Smith's younger son, Alexander, was born 14 months ago.

``Sometimes when women kill older children, it happens because they're mentally ill or severely depressed,'' said Kandel-Englander. She noted women sometimes ``believe they're saving a child from something terrible. If they're religious, they think the child is going to heaven.''

In rare cases, a killing can occur when a person is in a ``fugue state,'' in which memory is absent, she said.

Smith, charged with two counts of murder Thursday, had said since Alexander and his 3-year-old brother Michael disappeared Oct. 25 that they had been abducted in a carjacking. As recently as Thursday morning she made a tearful public plea for the children's safe return.

Tom Kuncl, author of the book ``Death Row Women'' who has studied many child killers, said, ``The denial is almost genuine. They can hardly believe they did it, either.''

Other common factors in such cases, he said, are recent divorces and sometimes drug or alcohol abuse. No evidence indicates drugs or drinking were factors in the case of Smith, though she did file last month for divorce from her husband, David, alleging adultery.

Ewing said women who kill their children are disproportionately young, ``immature in the ways of the world'' and less accustomed to handling pressure. Smith is 23.

All of those interviewed suggested something unknown in Smith's past could have helped set off the tragedy. ``Before we cast the first stone, we ought to look into her background and see what might be there,'' Ewing said.