Mother or Serial Killer?

Did their mother kill them

By ELISSA HUNT and MARK BUTTLER
February 25, 2005
http://dailytelegraph.news.com.au/story.jsp?sectionid=1258&storyid=2718663
A YOUNG mother was yesterday charged with murdering four of her children just 14 months after she was cleared by top pathologists.

Carol Louise Matthey, 25, denies killing her babies Jacob, Chloe and Joshua, and toddler Shania between 1998 and 2003.
Coroners ruled two babies died of cot death and another died from a rare infection. Pathologists in Victoria, who reviewed the medical evidence in December 2003, found nothing to indicate murder.
Matthey was arrested at a friend's house at 6am yesterday. She appeared briefly in Melbourne Magistrates Court five hours later, wearing a black T-shirt and with her thick brown hair pulled back into a ponytail.
The police investigation into the deaths took officers to the US last year, armed with forensic samples for a child death expert to examine.
American paediatric pathologist Dr Janice Ophoven, who gave evidence against Kathleen Folbigg, has played a key role in the investigation.
Folbigg, 37, of Newcastle, was sentenced for 40 years for killing her children Caleb, aged 20 days, eight-month-old Patrick, Sarah, 11 months, and Laura, 19 months, between 1989 and 1999. She lost her appeal against sentence last Thursday but had it reduced by 10 years.
It is understood Victoria Police waited until Folbigg's appeal was dismissed before deciding to charge Matthey.
Mrs Matthey's son Jacob, aged seven months, died in his cot on December 8, 1998. His death was attributed to sudden infant death syndrome, as was the death of nine-week-old Chloe in November 2000.
Joshua, aged three months, became ill at a supermarket in Geelong in July 2002. A coroner ruled his death was caused by an infection called klebsiella septicaemia.
Shania, aged 3, fell off a table at the Matthey's home in Herne Hill, near Geelong. An ambulance was called but she died the next day. An inquest into Shania's death is yet to be held.
A review of medical records by Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine deputy director Dr David Ranson in 2003 found no evidence Matthey or her husband Stephen murdered their children.
Police turned to Dr Ophoven, who gave evidence in the Folbigg case that the chance of four children dying from sudden infant death syndrome was"one-in-a-trillion".
In that case Dr Ophoven analysed tissue from each of the babies in making her finding.
Matthey's barrister Andrew McKenna yesterday asked Magistrate Maurice Gurvich to note that his client may need to be isolated from other prisoners for her own safety.
He said Matthey was taking medication for depression.
Mr Gurvich remanded her in custody to reappear in court in May.
Her husband Stephen yesterday refused to comment.
He has not been charged with any offence relating to the deaths.
The couple's surviving child is being cared for.
The Matthey family's solicitor John Butler said the arrest of Matthey came as a surprise.