Ohio mother Brittany Pilkington confessed to separately killing her three young sons over the course of a year because she thought her husband paid more attention to them than their daughter, say police, and now she has been charged with three counts of murder.
The last boy, 3-month-old Noah, died Tuesday.
Pilkington, 23, was being held in the Logan County Jail in Bellefontaine, after being charged with suffocating the boys on three separate occasions,
authorities told the Columbus Dispatch.
"In her mind, she was protecting her daughter from being not as loved as the boys were by their father," said Logan County Prosecutor William Goslee. He said he spent much of Tuesday interviewing Pilkington and she admitted suffocating the boys by putting a blanket over their heads.
Authorities had been investigating the deaths of 3-month-old Niall on July 22, 2014, and 4-year-old Gavin on April 6, 2015,
according to CBS News.
In each death, their father Joseph Pilkington found the boys unresponsive when he returned home from work.
"The tragic deaths of Niall, Gavin and Noah leave a pit in our stomachs today," said Police Chief Brandon K. Standley. "Our condolences go out to the remaining family members who have supported this family through a very difficult 13 months."
Joe Skaggs, Brittany Pilkington's uncle, criticized Logan County Children's Services for returning Noah and the couple's daughter, Hailey, to the Pilkington's this month after they were taken away upon the second death, reported the Dispatch.
"Why would you give them back after a little boy just died and when you're in the middle of an investigation?" asked Skaggs.
Goslee told the
Dayton Daily News his office didn't want the children returned to the family so soon and wanted to take a harder look at the parents, but Logan County Family Court Judge Dan Bratka found the evidence was insufficient to keep the children away from their parents.
"The problem there is we were operating on a hunch and a belief, not solid evidence," said Goslee. "Hindsight is 20/20. So if a judge is looking at the evidence, I'm not going to needlessly criticize a judge. I don't sit in his role."
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