Mothers who kill their own children are despicable by any measure, but when they kill over and over again, as Waneta Hoyt did, there’s no forgiving them.

Waneta Hoyt was an American serial killer, convicted of killing five of her biological children over a six-year period between 1965 and 1971. However, Hoyt wasn’t arrested until decades later, in 1994. She avoided interest for so long by convincing health professionals that all of her children had succumbed to SIDS, and taking pity instead of guilt.

Waneta Hoyt’s Early Life

There isn’t much in Waneta’s past to indicate why she turned into a child-murdering monster. She was from a large family, the sixth of eight children. Her father was a labourer, her mother a seamstress. In the ninth grade, young Waneta met a boy named Tim Hoyt on the bus. Two years later, aged just 17, she dropped out of high school and married him. Just nine months later she gave birth to a son, Eric.

Yet 48 days later, the boy was dead, and Waneta’s murder spree had begun.

Waneta Hoyt’s Children

Waneta and her husband Tim had five biological children, none of whom lived past 28 months. Eric, born October 17th 1964 died on January 26th 1965 was the first. He was followed by James, born May 31st 1966 and died September 26th 1968, Julie, born July 19th 1968 and died September 5th the same year, Molly, born March 18th 1970 and died June 5th the same year, and Noah, born May 9th 1971 and died July 28th the same year. A few years after the deaths of their children, Waneta and Tim added to their family one more time, through adoption. The boy, named Jay, survived into adulthood.

In all five cases, the deaths were attributed to SIDS, a condition that at the time was not widely accepted. One of her children became the first to be placed on a special monitor at home. The child still died, something explained by Waneta as a machine malfunction. Waneta’s family was considered so unusual that they were the subject of a 1972 medical report on SIDS written by paediatrician Alfred Steinschneider. In his report he linked SIDS to sleep apnoea, and drew links to a potential genetic predisposition to the condition, thanks in part to the Hoyt family. He argued that as all five of the Hoyt’s biological children had died, while their adopted son had survived, genetics had to play a part.

The community of Newark Valley had no inclination that Waneta might have been a murderer. The couple were considered to be quiet and stoic, despite their unimaginable loss. Each memorial day Waneta would drive to the small cemetery where her five babies were buried, and the community would feel sorry for them. It wasn’t until many years later that they would realise Waneta had been the cause of her children’s untimely deaths.

A Slow Walk To Justice

In 1985 a prosecutor in a county neighbouring Waneta’s was investigating a murder case that had been originally attributed to SIDS. He was talking to a forensic pathologist from Dallas named Dr. Linda Norton, who mentioned in passing that she believed there was a serial killer in Syracuse. Norton’s suspicions had been raised after reading Steinschneider’s report on the Hoyt’s, and noting the statistical incalculability that one family could lose so many children to SIDS. However, in the report the family was not identified by name, but rather by initial, so the two could go no further with their suspicions.

However, the same prosecutor became a District Attorney in 1992, and the suspicion still played on his mind. So, he tracked the case down and sent it to another forensic pathologist, to get his opinion. The pathologist, named Michael Baden, concluded the deaths were likely murder.

It took two more years for the case to develop, because of jurisdictional issues that required it to be transferred to another county. It was now March of 1994. Waneta Hoyt was approached at the post office by a police officer who was known to her. He told her that he was doing some research on SIDS, and was interested in getting her help. Waneta agreed, and was questioned by the trooper and two other policemen. When they raised their suspicions about the truthfulness of her story, Waneta appeared to crack.

She confessed to killing five of her infant children, with a candour that chilled investigators to the bone:

“I suffocated Eric in the living room,” Waneta said. “He was crying all the time, and I wanted to stop him….Julie was the next one to die…I cradled her up to my shoulder…when she quit crying I released her, and she wasn’t breathing.”

Waneta told police how she had killed James in September of 1968 after he tried to break in on her in the bathroom.

“He kept screaming, ‘Mommy, Mommy,’. I used a bath towel to smother him. He got a bloody nose from fighting against the towel.”

There were two more after him, both suffocated as well by Waneta’s confession. In explanation, Waneta told police that she “didn’t want them to die”, but that she just “wanted them to quiet down”.

Trial And Controversy

In 1995, not long after confessing her serial murders to law enforcement, Waneta Hoyt recanted her confession. She claimed that the statement she made was not made knowingly or voluntarily, and the statement’s validity was a major point of controversy during her trial. According to Waneta’s defence, she suffered from dependent and avoidant personality disorders, and she was vulnerable to interrogation tactics, and likely manipulated by them.

However, the jury wasn’t willing to let Waneta off. She was convicted in April of 1995, and sentenced in September of 1995 to 15 years for each murder, served consecutively.

As it happened, Waneta wouldn’t serve much of her sentence at all. In August of 1998 she died of pancreatic cancer in prison. Due to the fact that her appeal hadn’t yet been heard by the courts, she was formally exonerated. Her family, including her partner and adopted son, still believe she is innocent, but the rest of us will never know for sure.