Waneta Hoyt
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Waneta Hoyt | |
|---|---|
 family photo |
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| Background information | |
| Birth name: | Waneta Ethel Hoyt |
| Born: | May 13, 1946 New York |
| Penalty: | life sentence |
| Killings | |
| Number of victims: | 5 |
| Span of killings: | 1965 through 1971 |
| Country: | USA |
| State(s): | New York |
| Date apprehended: | 1994 |
Waneta Hoyt was an American serial killer. Her five biological children died, supposedly of Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS, or "crib death"). In fact, she and her family were the subject of a classic paper in the Journal of Pediatrics in 1972, used as evidence that SIDS runs in families.
In 1995 Hoyt confessed to and was convicted of murdering her children. Pediatricians were misled for years, and probably made numerous tragic mistakes, because of this one case.
According to Dr. Jerold Lucey, who was editor of the Journal of Pediatrics in 1972, "Huge amounts of time and money have been wasted over the last 25 years" because of Hoyt and the scientists she misled.
[edit] References
- Book: The Death of Innocents by Richard Firstman and Jamie Talan
- Begley S. The nursery's littlest victims. Newsweek. September 22, 1997. Pp. 72-73
- Steinschneider A. Prolonged apnea and the sudden infant death syndrome: clinical and laboratory observations. Pediatrics. 1972;50(4):221-227
