Australian mom Kathleen Folbigg was convicted of murdering three of her children in May 2003 and further convicted of manslaughter in the death of her fourth child. The children all died from SIDS and were under 2 years old at the time of their deaths.
Australians immediately turned on Folbigg, referring to her as the country's worst serial killer of all time. Now new evidence suggests that Folbigg was entirely innocent … 20 years after she began serving her sentence.
Folbigg was released on June 6, 2023. She went out with her best friend, and the pair shared food and soda. The world has changed a lot in the two decades that spent behind bars, but what matters the most is how DNA technology has changed and offered Folbigg a shot at redemption.
Folbigg's friend Tracy Chapman told reporters, "We just got to enjoy each other’s company to spend a lot of time with my dogs. She slept for the first time in a real bed, had a cup of tea in a real crockery cup, real spoons to stir with. That sounds basic to you all, but she’s grateful. And she slept in a real bed last night. She’s actually said it was the first time she’s been able to sleep properly in 20 years."
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Chapman added that "there's no hate in her heart" and that Folbigg most looks forward to moving on with her life.
Folbigg's four children were Caleb, who died at 19 days; Patrick, 8 months; Sarah, 10 months; and Laura, who died when she was 18 months old.
New evidence has suggested that at least two of her children died of natural causes. The genomes of her children were all sequenced in 2019 and showed that Laura and Sarah had new variants of the CALM2 gene. As reported by The Guardian, other version of the gene caused "cardiac abnormalities that caused sudden death in infants and children."
Associate professor of law Mehera San Roque explained to the outlet that "problems of that improbability reasoning that was being relied on in Folbigg’s case were already being exposed" and commented, "It was unfortunate that the 2019 inquiry spent far too much time trying to interpret or over-interpret the diaries, at the expense of what really should have been the focus, which was the emerging scientific evidence."
Folbigg's sons Caleb and Patrick carried a variant of the BSN gene, which has been shown to "cause early onset lethal epilepsy in mice when detected." Patrick was noted for suffering from epileptic seizures before his death.
The push to look at Folbigg's case with fresh eyes began in March 2021, when 90 Australian scientists and people who work in the medical industry demanded she be pardoned. They explained in part, "Folbigg’s case also establishes a dangerous precedent as it means that cogent medical and scientific evidence can simply be ignored in preference to subjective interpretations of circumstantial evidence."
The end of the inquiry produced the strongest indication that Folbigg was innocent: Researchers found that all four children had inherited modifier gene REM2 G96A from their father. This directly contributed to the deaths of Sarah and Laura.
Folbigg's lawyer concludes, "Kathleen’s case is in my view the biggest miscarriage of justice in Australian history, and it’s not just because I’m her lawyer. It’s because of the many factors in her case: the complete dehumanisation of a woman for being a normal mother; a preference by police and the prosecution to rely on discredited unscientific dogma and speculation; the number of appeals and reviews which failed to identify this serious miscarriage of justice."
