of a blood abnormality. none of the babies lived longer than six months. neither the medical examiner s office nor the police had any hard evidence that the couple had harmed any of their children. and marie noe continued to have babies. catherine, the noes ninth baby, was born in december of 1964. she lived longer than any of her brothers and sisters. long enough, for example, to have this portrait taken. the baby was kept in the hospital because they were afraid to let the baby go home. one doctor later told an investigator that he hoped catherine would live until her fingernails grew long enough so she could defend herself. after three months, catherine went home. that s when her problems began. marie noe called her doctor constantly. mrs. noe called him sometimes four or five times a day, asking his advice and complaining that the baby is getting on her nerves and she couldn t take all that crying constantly. once a nurse reported she saw her trying to feed the baby sayi
to various conditions. ranging from bronchopneumonia to congestive heart failure. yet the couple, apparently desperate to start a family, had another child. letitia. the result was the same. the child died. but this time, there was no question about what happened. they knew that it was going to be a stillbirth. mrs. noe described the situation where the doctors knew that the cord was wrapped around the baby s neck, the baby was dead and they believed that medically, she should carry to term. after the stillbirth, three years passed before mary lee, the noes seventh baby, was born in 1962. marie reported having many problems with mary lee and would call her doctor four or five times a day, complaining that the baby was crying. the baby wouldn t eat for her. and he considered this to be really off the scale. he just considered her to be a highly nervous, excitable woman. six months after mary lee was born, marie reported finding her gasping for breath and turning
children was yet another symptom of munchausen by proxy. the mothers present themselves as having black clouds over their shoulders and that s what happened when magazines like newsweek and especially life magazine covered the noe deaths. it made her famous for a time as the most sympathetic mother in the country. dr. howell fillinger, who performed autopsies on some of the noe babies, agrees with dr. feldman. he points out there was really no way to diagnose marie at that time. in those days, we didn t know much about munchausen syndrome, which this might be a manifestation of. coming up, doctors intervene, trying to save a baby s life. the baby was kept in the hospital because they were afraid to let the baby go home. [ smooches ]
constance s death piqued the interest of police in the medical examiner s office. after five babies born to the same young parents died under mysterious circumstances, they started asking questions. the police looked into this. they didn t look into it for very long and they didn t decide there was anything to do about it. but the problem with prosecuting any kind of sids cases is that there are certain ways people kill children that don t leave a sign. if you suffocate a very young child with a pillow, unless you do it so hard you cause bruising, the child will not have any sign of being killed. so they were just learning that, too. but the cause of death was appropriate. they were concerned. but they didn t know what to do. it was considered an odd case. constance was the first noe baby the doctor performed an autopsy on. the doctor said she found no apparent cause of death.
two is suspicious and three is homicide. dr. molly depena, who is a sids expert and performed autopsies on three of the noe children agrees that a serial sids case just isn t possible. apparently because it s not a genetic phenomenon, it is a natural, as far as we know, death, they are simply, sudden, unexpected and unexplained deaths. if the children weren t dying from sids, then what or who was killing them? on several occasions, marie noe took her babies to the hospital with breathing problems. but the children were released after doctors found nothing wrong with them. dr. feldman believes this kind of behavior could be a symptom of munchausen syndrome by proxy. the mother sickens the child under her care so that she is getting the same benefits of the sick role, that is, attention and concern. she s left herself in good