In the News

As reported by United Press International, October 9, 2006.

Expert Says Killer Moms' Bond Not Unusual

A psychiatrist says it isn't unusual that two women who made headlines for killing their children developed a friendship in a Texas state hospital.

Catherine Lewis, of the University of Connecticut Health Center, said people who commit similar crimes tend to socialize, The Dallas Morning News said. Sometimes they meet because they're segregated from the general population.

Dena Schlosser and Andrea Yates are two such friends, the newspaper said. Both women were found not guilty by reason of insanity for their children's deaths and are patients at the North Texas State Hospital in Vernon, the Morning News said. Yates believed she was saving her five children from Satan when she drowned them. Schlosser thought God wanted her to amputate her 10-month-old daughter's arms.

Lewis, who studied about 60 women who killed their children, said it wasn't unusual for such women to befriend others with similar experiences.

But, as with other relationships, a friendship between inmates or patients could be unhealthy. She said each friendship should be reviewed individually to determine whether it is helps or hurts, the Morning News said.