A mum in New Zealand Lauren Anne Dickason, 42, has been found guilty of murdering her three young daughters in a case that shocked the nation. She had earlier admitted killing her two-year-old twin daughters Maya and Karla, and their six-year-old sister Lianè, at their home in the town of Timaru nearly two years ago.
But she had pleaded not guilty to murder, arguing she was mentally disturbed at the time of the killings and didn’t know that what she was doing was wrong.
Prosecutors, however, pointed to Dickason’s troubling phone messages and online history in the weeks before the killings, including comments about wanting to kill her children and Google searches for ‘most effective overdose in kids’.
Lauren a qualified medical professional at first tried to kill her children using zip ties and then suffocated them with pillows. She then placed them in their beds under the covers and tried to kill herself.
Graham Dickason, an orthopedic surgeon and father of three little girls returned from a work dinner to find his children dead. He later told police that he knew his wife was struggling with her mental health and with motherhood but had no idea she was capable of killing.
The guilty verdict came after a four-week trial. The jury – of eight women and four men – rejected Dickason’s legal defenses under New Zealand’s insanity and infanticide laws. Dickason faces a sentence of life imprisonment. She will continue to be held in a mental health facility until her sentencing.
