Claudette Kibble was 23 years old when she was charged with murder in Houston in September 1995. The charge concerned the 1990 death of her nine-month-old son, Quinten. By then, according to the Associated Press, she had confessed to the deaths of three of her sons, two of whom died while she was still a child herself. Authorities said she was not charged in those two earlier deaths because she was a minor when they happened.
Her first son, Joshua, was born when she was 13, the Associated Press reported. On August 4, 1986, an ambulance crew in Houston found the boy, then 17 months old, unconscious. His mother, then 14, told them he was epileptic and had suffered a seizure. He was pronounced dead in a hospital 17 hours later, the Houston Press reported in 1996.
Her second son, Edward, died in 1988 at eight months. Her third, Quinten, died in 1990 at nine months; the Houston Press spelled his name Quenten and reported that he had a twin sister. In every case, the Associated Press reported, she took the child to a hospital and said he was having seizures. The Houston Press reported that she told investigators the two younger boys, like Joshua, had died after seizures that only she had seen.
The deaths passed through the Harris County Medical Examiner's Office, which was run at the time by Dr. Joseph Jachimczyk, the county's chief medical examiner for about 35 years. Dr. Eduardo Bellas performed the autopsy on Joshua and ruled that he had died of natural causes, as a result of epilepsy, and the case was closed. The office later ruled Edward's death natural as well and listed the cause of Quinten's death as undetermined, the Houston Press reported.
Investigators suspected foul play in all three deaths for years, the Associated Press reported, but could not prove anything. The medical examiner's office reopened the cases several times after 1990 at prosecutors' request, and the children showed no signs of abuse that would prove she had harmed them.
The pressure came from several directions. According to the Houston Press, the Harris County District Attorney's Office, the Houston Police Department and Children's Protective Services all urged the medical examiner's office to change its rulings, and it would not. In 1990 Marie Munier, then head of the district attorney's child abuse division, asked Dr. Vincent Di Maio, the chief medical examiner of Bexar County, to review the autopsies. Di Maio confirmed to the Houston Press that he had reviewed them; the paper reported that he was dismayed by the rulings, particularly in the second and third deaths, and that he believed the third should have been called a homicide.
District Attorney Johnny Holmes told the Houston Press that prosecutors were bound by the medical examiner's rulings unless they could persuade the office to reconsider. Dr. Bellas defended the findings, saying there was not enough information to rule any of the three deaths a homicide without a confession or a witness. Cecil Wingo, chief investigator for the medical examiner's office, said officials had known something was wrong but had not known where to look.
Children's Protective Services told the Houston Press that it had not been informed of Edward's death, and that knowing of it might have changed what happened later. After Quinten died, the agency took his twin sister into its custody, and she later lived with her grandmother, the paper reported.
In February 1993 Claudette Kibble gave birth to another son. The agency learned of the birth ten months later and, rather than remove him at once, monitored his health and built a file on the case. In June 1994, when he was 16 months old, his mother took him to a hospital, again saying he had suffered a seizure. He survived, and the agency obtained a court order for his custody. The Associated Press reported that he and his sister had been in state custody since July 1994, and that their mother was already being held on a separate charge involving the boy when she was charged with murder.
Judy Hay, a spokeswoman for Children's Protective Services, told the Associated Press that the agency had been suspicious from the beginning but that, without evidence, and especially without a medical examiner's finding, its hands were tied.
Dr. Jachimczyk retired at the end of August 1995. Less than a month later, Claudette Kibble was arrested and indicted, the Houston Press reported. She had confessed to her own mother, who contacted authorities, according to the Associated Press. On September 20, 1995, the day after she was said to have made that confession, police, prosecutors and child-welfare officials held a joint press conference at Houston Police Department headquarters.
The Associated Press reported that she then admitted to investigators that she had killed all three boys. Sergeant David Ferguson of the Houston Police Department declined to discuss her account in detail, including any motive she may have given. He later told the Houston Press that he did not believe the cases would have been cleared without her confessions. In September 1995, after the confession and after the murder charge was filed, the medical examiner's office ruled all three deaths homicides.
She appeared before state District Judge Ted Poe, who ordered a psychiatric evaluation to determine whether she was fit to stand trial, the Associated Press reported.
In January 1996 the Houston Press reported that she had been held in a county jail since her arrest and was expected to go to trial that spring. Her lawyer, Ricardo Rodriguez, said she had neither confirmed nor denied responsibility for the deaths and would plead not guilty. He planned to call the three pathologists as the first defense witnesses, arguing that they could not establish how the children had died.
How the case ended, whether by plea or verdict, and what sentence followed, if any, has not been reported.
The case became part of a wider public argument over the Harris County Medical Examiner's Office. The Houston Press placed it beside other disputes over the office under Dr. Jachimczyk, including pathologists' outside autopsy work and heavy caseloads. When the paper reported on the case in January 1996, Dr. Bellas was serving as acting chief medical examiner while a county committee interviewed candidates for the permanent post, among them Dr. Di Maio, who had reviewed the Kibble autopsies.
August 4, 1986: Joshua, 17 months old, dies; his death is ruled natural, from epilepsy.
1988: Edward Kibble dies at eight months; the death is ruled natural.
1990: Quinten Kibble dies at nine months; the cause is listed as undetermined. Prosecutors ask Dr. Vincent Di Maio of Bexar County to review the autopsies.
February 1993: another son is born.
June 1994: that son, 16 months old, is taken to a hospital after his mother reports a seizure; he survives and is placed in state custody.
August 1995: Dr. Joseph Jachimczyk retires as Harris County chief medical examiner.
September 1995: Claudette Kibble confesses to her mother; on September 20 officials hold a joint press conference; she is charged with murder in Quinten's death and indicted; the medical examiner's office rules all three deaths homicides; Judge Ted Poe orders a psychiatric evaluation.
January 1996: she is in jail awaiting trial; her lawyer says she will plead not guilty.