On this day in 1998: a Philadelphia mother was arrested and charged with smothering eight of her children.
Between 1949 and 1968, eight of Marie Noe’s 10 children died of mysterious causes which were then attributed to sudden infant death
syndrome.
Thirty years after the fi nal death, Noe, then 70, was charged with fi rstdegree murder. She was accused of using a pillow or another soft object to smother eight of her infants.
Marie Noe had 10 children: seven girls and three boys. All eight victims were healthy at birth and were developing normally. Two of the children lived just one month. One died after 13 days, another after 14 months.
Noe admitted to smothering four of the children and accepted a plea bargain in June 1999 which sentenced her to 20 years of probation and psychiatric study.
