Photo: airbanks Police Department
Stephany LaFountain’s 911 call last November reported that her 13-month-old child was not breathing. She also called family members of her husband, who was away on military duty, and they arrived and started CPR, police say.
It wasn’t enough. The child died four days later at a hospital.
At first, the death appeared to be an isolated family tragedy, but the suspicions of investigators were aroused when they discovered that LaFountain had lost another young child two years earlier. (Neither child has been publicly identified.)
The circumstances were similar. In 2015, authorities received an emergency call from the mother saying her 4-month-old was not breathing. That child died at a hospital the same day.
“The autopsy results and medical records for both children showed that they were entirely healthy, with no genetic abnormalities, no diseases and no injuries,” states a news release from police in Fairbanks, Alaska, where LaFountain lived and both infants died.
The apparent warning signs instead showed up in the mother’s internet searches.
An hour before she called to report her second child unresponsive, according to police, LaFountain searched these terms:
“Best ways to suffocate.”
“Ways to kill human with no proof.”
“16 steps to kill someone and not get caught.”
“How to: commit the perfect murder.”
Fairbanks Police Chief Eric Jewkes described the appearance of what he termed “an unimaginable tragedy” at a news conference Friday.
Police arrested LaFountain Friday on charges of murder in the first- and second- degree in both cases. She is being held on $2 million bail at Fairbanks Correctional Center.
An attorney who might speak on her behalf was not immediately identified.
The death of the first child was not investigated at the time as a homicide, but the parallels in the two cases caused investigators to look deeper, say police.
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LaFountain does not have any other children, police say.
The police chief acknowledged that the families of both infants were made to “suffer in obscurity” during the nine months it took for investigators to complete their work.
“This is the first time anybody’s heard about this,” Jewkes said at his news conference. “They shouldered the grieving process alone and we’re going to bring this to light and hopefully provide some kind of closure to them. And that’s important.”
source: people.com
