Released

Elizabeth was born on the 8th of July 1996 in the back of a van in New York City, with her mother screaming and wailing and her current boyfriend of the time trying not to puke. It all went perfectly well, but the pair didn’t really know what to do with a baby. They did the best they could, while still trying to maintain their drinking habit, and Elizabeth cries came more and more infrequently. As she grew, her mother tried to lessen her drinking once again. When Elizabeth was four years old they moved out of the van and into a small apartment building, and her mother got a job. For a few years, it looked like everything might work out.

Rebecca was born when Beth was six, and her fierce protectiveness for her sister was thwarted with hatred for his mother’s own lack of nurturance. As the children grew, their mother developed severe alcoholism. Her string of boyfriends abused the kids when she wasn’t looking, and their mother only drank more as she noticed their bruised frail bodies.

Beth stole from stores, getting arrested a few times, to provide food for her sister and herself. This theft became worse and worse, and as she grew older her criminal behavior escalated. She was excluded from school for selling drugs to fellow students, and her own drug use escalated. She gradually noticed her sister becoming more and more withdrawn, and at the age of fifteen she found out her sister was being sexually abused by their mothers’ new boyfriend.

Instead of killing him, Elizabeth restrained herself. She is intelligent, and she knew killing the boyfriend would lead back to her. She and Rebecca concocted a plan to kill their mother. Over the next year, they went through various scenarios before the day came. Rebecca helped her mother drink while slipping codeine into the alcohol. Afterward, the girls helped her mother into the bath before Elizabeth held her head under the water. She wore gloves, pushing gently to leave no marks.

An hour later, she picked up the phone and played the part of a hysterical daughter who had loved her dear mother. The police came, and after interviewing both children they were satisfied. The siblings had been going through practices of the interviews for months prior.

For a year they lived with their aunt, benefiting from better care and better home life. However, Beth’s criminal record only lengthened as she began to sell drugs and act violently towards members of the public for no reason. The police became suspicious, insisting they watch the house. One of the police ran into Rebecca returning from a party drunk and questioned her, and under the influence of alcohol, the younger sister agreed to confess.

The siblings were sentenced to one year in prison, in light of their abuse and young age at the time of the murder their sentence was reduced. Their names were later published in the newspaper, and Elizabeth spent a year in a psychiatric facility before being released.