The mother accused of murdering her four children in Australia is pardoned, thanks to medicine

Kathleen Folbigg55 years old, and nicknamed as the “biggest serial killer” from Australia, has been acquitted after spending 20 years behind bars.

Sentenced to 40 years in prison for the murder of three of her children and the involuntary manslaughter of the fourth, in 2003, she has managed to be declared “innocent” after a group of 90 scientists, including two Nobel Prize winners, signed in 2021 a petition by suggesting that the deaths were related to genetic mutations or congenital abnormalities.

The Attorney General for the State of New South Wales, Michael Daleyhas explained that “in the interests of justice, Kathleen Folbigg must be released from custody as soon as possible” by “proving” the “natural” death of her four children between 1989 and 1999 and aged between 19 days and 18 months.

• “This has been a terrible ordeal for all concerned and I hope our actions today can put an end to this 20-year-old affair.”

The prosecutor has also informed the father of the babies of his decision, of which he has said that “it will be a hard day for him.”

His legal team already argued at the time that there was scientific evidence that a genetic mutation could be responsible for the deaths of at least two of Folbigg’s children.

1. “It is impossible to comprehend the damage that has been inflicted on Kathleen Folbigg… The pain of losing her children and then nearly two decades locked up in maximum security prisons for crimes that science has proven never happened,” said her attorney Rhanee Rego.

And now, a scientific team has proven it. This research has been led by a prestigious Spanish scientist, Dr. Carola G. Vinuesaa researcher at the Royal Society of the United Kingdom.

Vinuesa, in conversation with this newspaper (whose story as it was told when science got involved in this case can be heard on a podcast ) clarified that:

• “With new DNA sequencing technologies it is now possible to sequence entire genomes. Two decades ago this could not be done. But today genetic causes are known for more than 30% of SIDS cases. And since many of these causes are hereditary , we decided to sequence Kathleen’s genome.”

The fact that they addressed this Spanish scientist is due to the fact that Vinuesa is co-director of the Center for Personalized Immunology and Professor of Immunology at the Australian National University, as well as a member of the Research Excellence Award.

The Spanish scientist Carola G. Vinuesa, key in the case of Kathleen Folbigg

And the result completely changed the focus of the case:

• “We found a never-before-described mutation in a gene called CALM2which encodes calmodulin, and What can cause cardiac death in infancy?. With this information, we wrote a report recommending that the genomes of all four children be sequenced.”

The Spanish doctor, resident in Australia, has been part of the team of geneticists since 2019 that analyzes the genomes of Folbigg and her children.

All the babies died in their sleep

• Caleb, February 1989. It was the first of the deaths. His daughter was only 19 days old. At birth he was breathing quite noisy and the pediatrician diagnosed him with a mild case of laryngomalacia. It was not serious and otherwise he was healthy. But on the night of February 20, according to the trial, the baby, who was sleeping in the room next to the bedroom she shared with her husband, was found by Folbigg.

Kathleen, with one of her babies.

• Patrick Allen. He passed away on October 18, 1990. He was born on June 3. And on February 18, 1991, Folbigg called her husband at work to report Patrick’s death and told her, “She’s happened again!” Patrick was only 4 months old.
• Sarah Kathlee. He died on August 29, 1993, at 8 months of age. He was born on October 14, 1992.
• Laura Elizabeth. He passed away on February 27, 1999, at the age of 19 months.

The causes that initially determined forensics for the two girls and the two boys were related to sudden deaths:

• Caleb, the firstbornas a consequence of the syndrome known as SIDS, the sudden death of the infant, totally inexplicable, just like what happened to her sisters Sarah and Laura.
• In Patrick’s caseThey attributed it to the fact that at four months of age he suffered severe brain damage as a result of an acute event, and that was what four months later, according to the doctors, ended his life.

It is with the death of Laura, the youngest of the four siblings, that the police put the clue on Kathleen and a murder investigation begins after the autopsy pathologist, Dr. Allan Cala, ruled that “myocarditis, the inflammation of the heart muscle, it was not life threatening.

The father opposed the investigation

But the investigation was hampered by the refusal of the father of the children to grant a DNA test that the courts did not claim either, although their ability to clarify the case could have been decisive.

Because “by carrying out a genetic analysis of this type, analyzing the DNA of the father and the mother, a much clearer image can be obtained of whether a mutation in a child is harmful”, emphasized Vinuesa.

Despite all the obstacles they encountered, the medical team managed to find Kathleen’s inherited CALM2 variant in her daughters Laura and Sarah.

So much so that, as Dr. Vinuesa acknowledged, “before the judicial investigation made its findings public, an article reviewed by international experts was published that contained a record of 74 people with variants in the CALM genes, including young children who had died suddenly during periods of sleep”.

• “A girl who died at age four and her brother, who went into cardiac arrest at age five, had a calmodulin mutation at the same protein location as Sarah and Laura. The children had also inherited the mutation of his healthy mother”.

The study’s lead author, Professor Peter Schwartz, cardiologist and one of the world authorities on the genetic causes of cardiac arrhythmias and sudden death unexpectedly, he reviewed Folbigg’s case and concluded that “the CALM2 variant was the probable cause of the deaths of Sarah and Laura”.

In spite of everything, the investigation and the study were rejected at the time by the Australian courts and again alluded to the existence of the diary and the incriminating interpretation that the police authorities made of the sentence written by his mother:

• “I feel like the worst mother on this earth. Scared of…