Natashay Yvonne Ward

Victims
3 - three counts of RECKLESS murder by plea, a distinct offence from intentional murder
Years active
January 2005
Location
Huntsville, Alabama, Madison County, USA
Method
Starving to death
Status
Pleaded guilty to three counts of reckless murder on February 7, 2007, and was sentenced to three consecutive life sentences The bodies of Ward's children - Shanieka Y.

Ward was born in 1974 and lived in Huntsville, Alabama. In January 2005 her three children, Shanieka, eleven, Latricia, nine, and Christopher, eight, were found dead at the family home. All three had starved.

She pleaded guilty on February 7, 2007 to three counts of reckless murder, the charge covering an extreme indifference to human life rather than an intent to kill, and was sentenced to three consecutive life terms.

The case turned on the length of it. The children died slowly, in a house, over a period during which the family had contact with agencies, and the reckless-murder charge reflected what the state could prove about her state of mind rather than any doubt about what happened.

This is not a serial case and the entry says so; it is starvation neglect resulting in three deaths. The accessible sourcing is Alabama press reporting of the plea.