# Filicide

Filicide is the deliberate act of a parent killing their own child. The word filicide is derived from the Latin words filius and filia ('son' and 'daughter') and the suffix -cide, from the word caedere meaning 'to kill'. The word can refer to both the crime and perpetrator of the crime.

## Statistics

A 1999 U.S. Department of Justice study concluded that mothers were responsible for a higher share of children killed during infancy between 1976 and 1997 in the United States, while fathers were more likely to have been responsible for the murders of children aged eight or older. Parents were responsible for 61% of child murders under the age of five. Sometimes, there is a combination of murder and suicide in filicide cases. On average, according to FBI statistics, 450 children are murdered by their parents each year in the United States.
An in-depth longitudinal study of 297 cases convicted of filicide and 45 of filicide-suicide in the United Kingdom between 1997 and 2006 showed that 37% of the perpetrators had a recorded mental illness at the time. The most common diagnoses were mood disorders and personality disorders rather than psychosis, but the latter accounted for 15% of cases. However – similar to findings in a large Danish study – the majority had not had contact with mental health services prior to the murders, and few had received treatment. Female perpetrators were more likely to have given birth as teenagers. Fathers were more likely to have been convicted of violent offences and have a history of substance misuse, and were more likely to kill multiple victims. Infants were more likely to be victims than older children, and a link to post-partum depression was suggested.

## Types of filicide

Dr. Phillip Resnick published research on filicide in 1969 and stated that there were five main motives for filicide, including "altruistic", "fatal maltreatment", "unwanted child", "acutely psychotic" and "spousal revenge". "Altruistic" killings occur because the parent believes that the world is too cruel for the child, or because the child is enduring suffering (whether this is actually occurring or not). In fatal maltreatment killings, the goal is not always to kill the child, but death may occur anyway, and Munchausen syndrome by proxy is in that category. Spousal revenge killings are killings of children done to indirectly harm a domestic partner; they do not frequently occur. Glen Carruthers, author of "Making sense of spousal revenge filicide", argued that those who engage in spousal revenge killings see their own children as objects.

## Children at risk

In 2013, in the United States, homicide was in the top five causes of deaths of children, and in the top three causes of death in children between 1 and 4 years old. A direct correlation has been identified between child abuse rates and child homicide rates. Research suggests that children murdered by their parents were physically abused by them prior to their death.
In South Asia and the Middle East, many homicide cases were due to parents killing their children after being accused of violating the family's reputation; daughters were most likely to be murdered in these killings.

## Notable examples

| Victim(s) | Perpetrator(s) | Relation of parent to child(ren) | Date | Location | Notes |
| Titus and Tiberius Junius Brutus | Lucius Junius Brutus | Father | 509 BC | Roman Republic | Lucius Junius Brutus, who is usually credited with overthrowing the final King of Rome Lucius Tarquinius Superbus and establishing the Roman Republic, executed his sons Titus and Tiberius when they were implicated in a plot to restore the monarchy. |
| Son of Aulus Postumius Tubertus | Aulus Postumius Tubertus | Father | 431 BC | Roman Republic | There is a story that Aulus Postumius Tubertus, who served as dictator in the year 431 BC, had his son put to death when he abandoned a post assigned to him in order to attack the enemy. The account is doubted by Roman historian Livy, due to similarities to stories about the family of Titus Manlius Imperiosus Torquatus (see below). |
| Son of Titus Manlius Imperiosus Torquatus | Titus Manlius Imperiosus Torquatus | Father | 340 BC | Latium, Italian Peninsula, Roman Republic | During the Latin War, Roman consul Titus Manlius Imperiosus Torquatus executed his own son after he left his post in order to attack a group of Latins, leading to a reputation in his family for extreme discipline. |
| Decimus Junius Silanus Manlianus | Titus Manlius Torquatus | Father | 140 BC | Roman Republic | While serving as Praetor in Macedonia, Decimus Junius Silanus Manlianus was accused of corruption by Macedonian envoys. His father Titus Manlius Torquatus, a senior Senator, was granted permission to privately try his son in his home. Despite knowing that the family code of honour would compel his son to commit suicide, Titus sentenced his son to banishment from his sight, causing Manlianus to take his own life. His severity was supposedly inspired by his descendance from the equally severe Titus Manlius Imperiosus Torquatus (see above). |
| Son of Quintus Fabius Maximus Eburnus | Quintus Fabius Maximus Eburnus | Father | c. 116 BC | Roman Republic | Quintus Fabius Maximus Eburnus, consul in 116 BC, condemned one of his sons to death for "immorality". |
| Jin Nong'er | Jin Midi | Father | 121-87 BC | Western Han Empire | Jin Midi killed his own son Nong'er after the latter entered the imperial harem. This cemented the respect Jin Midi, by descent a Xiongnu prince, already had from Emperor Wu of Han; later Jin ascended to the rank of general of chariots and cavalry. |
| Alexander I and Aristobulus IV | Herod the Great | Father | 7 BC | Herodian Kingdom of Judea | According to Josephus, King Herod of Judea had his sons Alexander and Aristobulus strangled because he feared they would usurp him. |
| Claudia Livia (Livilla) | Antonia Minor | Mother | 31 | Roman Empire | Livilla, along with her lover Sejanus, was accused of poisoning Drusus Julius Caesar, the son of Emperor Tiberius. According to historian Cassius Dio, Tiberius placed Livilla in the custody of her mother Antonia, who locked her up in a room where she was starved to death. |
| Aulus Vitellius Petronianus | Vitellius | Father | 69 | Roman Empire | Suetonius wrote that Vitellius was widely believed to have murdered his son in order to inherit the fortune of the boy's maternal grandparents. In this account, Vitellius claimed that his son had attempted parricide beforehand and killed himself out of shame. |
| Children of Liu Chen (Shu Han) | Liu Chen (Shu Han) | Father | December 263 | Shu Han, Ancient China | It is recorded in the Records of the Three Kingdoms that Liu Chen killed himself and his family after the surrender of his father led to the fall of the Shu Han empire. |
| Crispus | Constantine the Great | Father | 326 | Pula, Istria, Roman Empire | For unclear reasons, Crispus was sentenced to death by his father Emperor Constantine the Great in 326 AD. |
| Constantine VI | Irene of Athens | Mother | c. 797 (before 805) | Byzantine Empire | Irene of Athens organised a conspiracy to have her son Constantine VI eliminated so she could become sole ruler of the Byzantine Empire. On 19 August 797, her supporters gouged out his eyes and had him imprisoned. He died sometime before 805, possibly as a result of his injuries. |
| Savcı Bey | Murad I | Father | c. 1373 | Ottoman Empire | Convinced by Andronikos IV Palaiologos, son of John V Palaiologos, Savcı Bey rebelled against his father Murad I, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, in an attempt to seize power. He was unsuccessful and his father had him executed. |
| Cristobal | Acxotécatl | Father | 1527 | Tlaxcala, New Spain | After Cristobal converted from the indigenous religion of his family to Catholicism, he started to destroy religious icons in his family home. This provoked his father Acxotécatl to viciously beat him – in an attempt to make him renounce his new faith – before he burnt his son to death over a fire. He is one of the Child Martyrs of Tlaxcala. |
| Şehzade Mustafa | Suleiman the Magnificent | Father | 6 October 1553 | Ereğli, Ottoman Empire | Suleiman I, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, ordered the death of his son Şehzade Mustafa after mistakenly believing that he was conspiring against him. The responsibility for this is usually placed on Rüstem Pasha. |
| Tsarevich Ivan Ivanovich | Ivan the Terrible | Father | 19 November 1581 | Alexandrov Kremlin, Tsardom of Russia | Although exact details are unconfirmed, it is believed that Ivan Ivanovich confronted his father Tsar Ivan IV Vasilyevich (Ivan the Terrible) after his pregnant wife Yelena Sheremeteva was physically assaulted by him, which possibly caused her to subsequently miscarry. The confrontation led to an argument, during which Tsar Ivan became enraged and hit his son over the head with a sceptre, an injury which he died from a few days later. Tsar Ivan felt great regret following the act, and his grief is famously depicted in Ilya Repin's painting, Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan. |
| Mohammad Baqer Mirza | Abbas the Great | Father | 1615 | Rasht, Safavid Iran | After starting to believe that his son Mohammad Baqer Mirza was planning to overthrow him, Abbas the Great ordered Behbud Khan Cherkes to murder him in a hammam in the city of Resht. He immediately regretted the decision and was plunged into despair. |
| Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich of Russia | Peter the Great | Father | 26 June 1718 | Petropavlovskaya fortress, Empire of Russia | Alexei was suspected of being involved in a plot to overthrow his father, Tsar Peter I of Russia, who had him tortured into making a confession – possibly taking part personally. Alexei was convicted and sentenced to death, but died of his injuries before the execution could be carried out, most likely due to him having received over forty lashes with a knout. |
| Gracie, Alice, Mabel, and Willis | Mary Cowan | Mother | 1884–1894 | Maine, United States | After getting away with the murder of her first husband and their three children, Mary Cowan poisoned her second husband and their son with arsenic. The husband survived and she was sentenced to life imprisonment. |
| Ponciano and Feliza Rojas | Francisca Rojas | Mother | 29 June 1892 | Necochea, Buenos Aires Province, Argentina | In 1892, Francisca Rojas murdered her two children and attempted to blame her neighbour, her motive being to appease a man who was reluctant to marry her due to her "two brats". When presented with evidence against her, she broke down and confessed. She is believed to be the first criminal in the world to be convicted with fingerprint evidence. |
| Harry Fragson | Victor Pot | Father | 31 December 1913 | 56 Rue La Fayette, Paris, France | On 31 December 1913, British music hall star Harry Fragson returned to his home in Paris to discover his mentally ill father Victor Pot about to commit suicide. There was an argument that led to Victor fatally shooting his son. Victor then died six weeks later in an asylum. |
| The Goebbels children | Joseph and Magda Goebbels | Father and mother | 1 May 1945 | Führerbunker, Berlin, Nazi Germany | As it became clear to them that Germany was going to lose the Second World War, Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels and his wife Magda made the decision to kill themselves and their children, rather than succumb to capture by the advancing Russian Army. SS dentist Sturmbannführer Helmut Kunz injected the children with morphine, after which Magda and SS-Obersturmbannführer Ludwig Stumpfegger (Adolf Hitler's personal doctor) crushed ampules of cyanide in their mouths. |
| Gennady Motsny | Anatoly Motsny | Father | 31 March 1952 | Soviet Union | Anatoly Motsny, veteran of the Eastern Front during World War II, former Senior Lieutenant in the Red Army, and former Hero of the Soviet Union, was stripped of all titles and awards after he murdered his five-year-old son. |
| Kimberly and Kristen MacDonald | Jeffrey R. MacDonald | Father | 17 February 1970 | Fort Bragg, North Carolina, United States | In the early hours of the morning on 17 February 1970, Colette Stevenson and her two children were bludgeoned to death in their home at Fort Bragg. Her husband and father of her children, US Army physician Jeffrey R. MacDonald, was present at the scene and claimed that three intruders had broken into the house and attacked them in a manner which resembled the Manson Family murders. Evidence suggested that the story was fabricated and he was charged with the murders in 1979, after nearly a decade of legal proceedings. |
| Patricia, Frederick, and John List | John List | Father | 9 November 1971 | Westfield, New Jersey, United States | On 9 November 1971, John List murdered his mother, wife, and three children. He then assumed a new identity and disappeared. He was apprehended over seventeen years later in June 1989 after being featured in an episode of America's Most Wanted. |
| Cheryl Downs | Diane Downs | Mother | 19 May 1983 | Springfield, Oregon, United States | Diane Downs shot her three children and drove them to McKenzie-Willamette Medical Center, where she claimed that the shootings had happened during an attempted carjacking. Cheryl (aged seven) was dead upon arrival and the other two children, Danny (aged three) and Christie (aged eight), suffered serious injuries. Hospital staff found Diane's behaviour suspicious and forensic evidence did not match her statements to police. She was charged with murder and two counts of attempted murder and assault and sentenced to life in prison. |
| Marvin Gaye | Marvin Gay Sr. | Father | 1 April 1984 | Los Angeles, California, United States | During an argument, American musician Marvin Gaye was shot and killed by his father Marvin Gay, Sr. at their home in Arlington Heights. |
| Judith Barsi | József Barsi | Father | 25 July 1988 | Los Angeles, California, United States | Child actress Judith Barsi was killed in a murder-suicide by her abusive, alcoholic father in a fit of rage after learning that his wife was leaving him. |
| Ulrich Luthe | Claus Luthe | Father | 13 April 1990 | Munich, Germany | Famed German car designer Claus Luthe fatally stabbed his 33-year-old son following an argument. His career at BMW abruptly ended, Luthe was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 33 months in prison. |
| Michael and Alexander Smith | Susan Smith | Mother | October 1994 | John D. Long Lake, South Carolina, United States | On 25 October 1994, Susan Smith reported to police that she had been carjacked by a black man while her children were still inside the vehicle. However, on 3 November she confessed to letting her car roll into John D. Long Lake. |
| Robert, Jr. and Britney Fisher | Robert William Fisher | Father | 10 April 2001 | Scottsdale, Arizona, United States | On 10 April 2001, the Fisher family home exploded. The bodies of Mary Fisher and her two children were found inside the remains; their throats had been slit and Mary had been shot in the back of the head. Husband and father Robert William Fisher had a history of cruel and controlling behaviour and is the only suspect in the case. His current whereabouts are unknown (as of November 2022). |
| Noah, John, Paul, Luke, and Mary Yates | Andrea Yates | Mother | 20 June 2001 | Houston, Texas, United States | While suffering from severe postpartum depression, postpartum psychosis, and schizophrenia, Andrea Yates drowned her five children in their bathtub on 20 June 2001. She was sentenced to life imprisonment before being found not guilty by reason of insanity, after which she was moved to the North Texas State Hospital, a high-security mental health facility. |
| Margaret Schlosser | Dena Schlosser | Mother | 22 November 2004 | Plano, Texas, United States | Dena Schlosser was diagnosed with hydrocephalus at the age of eight and suffered from a variety of mental health problems throughout her life. During an episode described as a "religious frenzy", she amputated the arms of her eleven-month-old daughter, Margaret, who died as a result. She was committed to the North Texas State Hospital, where she became a roommate of Andrea Yates (see above). |
| Bobby Äikiä | Niina Äikiä | Mother | 14 January 2006 | Nässjö, Sweden | Niina Äikiä and her boyfriend Eddy Larsson began to torture her intellectually disabled son Bobby in late 2005, which culminated in his death the following year. |
| Daniel Benoit | Chris Benoit | Father | 23 June 2007 | Fayetteville, Georgia, United States | Over a of period of three days beginning on 22 June 2007, Canadian professional wrestler Chris Benoit murdered his wife Nancy and their seven-year-old child Daniel, before killing himself. It was determined that Daniel had been sedated with Xanax before being asphyxiated. |
| Charles and Braden Powell | Joshua Powell | Father | 5 February 2012 | South Hill, Washington, United States | After Joshua Powell was named a person of interest in the investigation into the disappearance of his wife Susan, custody of their two children was awarded to Susan's parents. This led to Joshua blowing up his house with him and the children inside in an apparent murder-suicide. |
| Daniel Pełka | Magdalena Łuczak | Mother | 3 March 2012 | Coventry, England, United Kingdom | Daniel Pełka was severely abused by his mother Magdalena Łuczak along with her new partner Mariusz Krężołek until it resulted in his death in March 2012. The extent of Daniel's injuries and failure of social services to identify him as a victim of child abuse caused a shock in the UK media. Magdalena and Mariusz were jailed for life and both later died in prison. |
| Lama al-Ghamdi | Fayhan al-Ghamdi | Father | October 2012 | Saudi Arabia | Five-year-old Lama al-Ghamdi died in hospital after being severely beaten and raped by her father Fayhan al-Ghamdi. Her injuries included a crushed skull, a broken arm, and broken ribs. Fayham was sentenced to eight years in prison and eight hundred lashes, although this was reduced to three years. He was also ordered to pay a sum equivalent to $267,000 in blood money to Lama's mother. |
| Children of Jaime Iván Martínez | Jaime Iván Martínez | Father | November 2015 | Antioquia, Colombia | Jaime Iván Martínez is a Colombian serial killer who murdered somewhere between twenty and twenty-five people, including his wife and two children (aged five and seven). |
| Paul Murdaugh | Alex Murdaugh | Father | June 7, 2021 | Colleton County, South Carolina, United States | Disbarred South Carolina attorney Alex Murdaugh convicted of murdering his wife Maggie, 52, and son Paul, 22, on the evening of June 7, 2021. Prosecutors argued that Alex Murdaugh's financial crimes, opioid addiction, and other misdeeds were soon to be made public, which motivated Murdaugh to gain sympathy while keeping his secrets from being revealed. |

## Gallery

* Postumius kills his son for betraying his orders by Domenico Beccafumi
* Constantine the Great, who executed his son for unknown reasons
* Cristobal (centre) was murdered by his father and is one of the Child Martyrs of Tlaxcala, who were canonization as saints by Pope Francis in 2017.
* Suleiman the Magnificent had his son executed
* Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan, by Ilya Yefimovich Repin
* Mary Cowan, who murdered her children
* British Music hall star Harry Fragson, who was fatally shot by his father in Paris in 1913
* Joseph and Magda Goebbels with their children. They would murder them at the end of World War II in Europe, with the exception of Harald Quandt (in uniform), Magda's son from a previous marriage.
* Diane Downs, who shot her three children, killing one of them
* Marvin Gaye was shot and killed by his father during an argument in 1984.
* Chris Benoit, who murdered his wife and child before killing himself