Forensic Files - Season 3, Episode 12 - Broken Bond - Full Episode | Forensic Files

[music playing] NARRATOR: When a two-year-old boy was rushed to the hospital suffering from brain seizures and breathing problems,
doctors could not find the cause of the illness. Blood pressure's a little bit low.
We're going to make sure we continue to monitor that. NARRATOR: But the boy's sister provided
an important clue, the possibility of a rare syndrome few had ever heard of. [music playing]
In 1987, Ray and Tanya Reid, along with their two children, had just moved to Urbandale, Iowa.
It was Ray Reid's fourth job transfer in three years. My husband, every time we moved,
it was an advancement for him. And I was ready. You know, any time. Anything he wanted to do, I wanted to go.
NARRATOR: Tanya Reid was a housewife who stayed at home to care for her children, six-year-old Carolyn
and two-year-old Michael. Just two days after moving to town, their youngest child, Michael, stopped breathing.
Fortunately, Tanya was a nurse and knew exactly what to do. She performed CPR and immediately
took him to the emergency room of Iowa Methodist Medical Center. It was fever of viral etiology,
dehydration, and vomiting. That was a pretty standard diagnosis and situation. NARRATOR: After he was stabilized,
Michael was given a complete physical examination. He had a prior history of neurologic seizures,
but doctors could not determine what was causing them. A few months later, the Reids moved into a larger
unit in the same complex. Ray was working extremely long hours and Tanya was lonely.
I think, in the beginning, the relationship was OK. It was enough for Tanya because she was working
and she had enough outlets in her life to, you know, keep herself busy and feel that she was happy.
But when she-- you know, as the relationship went on, and the years went by, I think there
was an emptiness and a lack of true affection between the two of them. NARRATOR: Three months later, Michael had another episode.
He stopped breathing and turned blue. His mother called the paramedics. When they arrived, Tanya was on the floor
of the living room giving Michael mouth to mouth resuscitation. We're here to help you out, ma'am.
Please move aside. Thank you very much. He's not breathing. NARRATOR: At the hospital, tests could not
determine the cause of Michael's breathing problems. The child's pediatrician speculated that Michael might
simply be holding his breath. One week later, paramedics were called to the Reid residence
once again. Michael had another breathing episode. She appeared very calm for such serious natures.
To be doing mouth to mouth on a child, I can-- speaking for myself, if it was my child,
I'd be a nervous wreck. NARRATOR: Just three years earlier, Michael's older sister, Morgan, died unexpectedly
at nine months old. The autopsy said Morgan died of cardiorespiratory arrest of unknown origin.
Like Michael, Morgan had a history of breathing problems and numerous hospitalizations
before she died. Morgan's death was a stressful time for the Reid's marriage. We did have stress when Morgan died.
Any couple will go through stress when there's a death in the family, a child death.
And we did stay together through all that. NARRATOR: One month later, paramedics were called
to the Reid's home once again. Tanya successfully resuscitated Michael before he
was taken to the hospital. Numerous medical workups had been done to try to find a cause of this,
including a number of pediatric specialists and pediatric subspecialists, and nothing had been found.
NARRATOR: Doctors were mystified. What was wrong with Michael? I think doctors don't want to admit
that they're infallible, that there's something they can't find. NARRATOR: Soon, doctors looked deeper into Michael's breathing
problems. Doctors at Iowa Methodist Medical Center couldn't find the cause of the seizures and breathing problems
two-year-old Michael Reid was experiencing. A few days after they returned to Iowa,
Michael stopped breathing again. Tony Collins and the other paramedics were baffled,
and their logbook showed it. Things didn't fit together that a kid would hold his breath long enough to make him have
seizures or quit breathing. NARRATOR: Then, on Sunday, February 7, while Ray Reid was relaxing downstairs.
TANYA REID: Come upstairs! Michael's in trouble! NARRATOR: He heard Tanya scream from the master bedroom.
What's wrong. - He's not breathing. - What happened? I don't know. Call an ambulance.
I'll be right back. NARRATOR: It had happened again. Michael was having another breathing episode
and was rushed to the hospital. The nurse on duty noticed something unusual. On Michael's cheek were some red parallel scratch marks,
scratches that looked like they had been made by the boy's fingernails. To the nurse, it looked as if Michael
had tried to remove someone's hands from around his neck and mouth. Oh, nurse, I seem to have cut my fingers.
NARRATOR: Just a few moments later, an interesting coincidence. Tanya Reid asked the nurse to look at her finger.
It was bleeding. I don't think I probably would have noticed if this had been my child that I had a scratch on my finger,
and I certainly wouldn't have mentioned it to anybody. NARRATOR: Michael was only two years old and too
young to talk, so it was impossible for doctors and social workers to interview him.
But the scratch marks on Michael's face and Tanya's bleeding finger led doctors to suspect a rare form of child abuse called
Munchausen syndrome by proxy. It first appeared in the medical literature in 1977
and was named after Baron von Munchausen, an 18th century soldier famous for fabricating fabulous tales
of his battlefield exploits. Munchausen syndrome by proxy describes adults who either fabricate or actually cause
illness in their own children. They do this because they crave the attention and concern
of the medical staff, emergency personnel, and even family members and friends. When a social worker interviewed the Reids at the hospital
about the possibility of child abuse, Tanya was furious. Angry and hurt that it would even be--
surprized, shock. You know, what-- every term probably went through, every form of emotion there is.
NARRATOR: Tanya was given a lie detector test. When she was asked if she ever intentionally
caused harm to her children, she said no, and passed. In addition to the scratches on Michael's face,
there was a pattern to the episodes, a pattern that was cleared to paramedics from their time-dated logbook.
These calls were happening on the same days, and roughly the same time of day, and that struck me odd as well.
NARRATOR: Almost exclusively, the calls to the paramedics were on Tuesdays and Fridays, always
at about the same time of the day, in the late afternoon or early evening. For the most part, they coincided with the days
and times Ray Reid was at work. The Reids were convinced that Michael had a similar condition
to the one that killed their daughter, Morgan, while they were living in Texas. To find out, medical detectives in Iowa
decided to conduct their own investigation into Morgan Reid's death. Morgan Reid was just nine months old when she died in 1984.
Morgan's medical records revealed repeated visits to the hospital emergency rooms in Texas
for breathing problems and seizures before she died. The cause of death listed on Morgan's autopsy report
said cardiorespiratory arrest of unknown origin. But three other words, in the report leaked out,
acute subdural hematoma, a swelling in the brain which contains blood. At the bottom of the page, the pathologist had written,
no evidence of child abuse. Iowa's medical examiner was alarmed. The autopsy mentioned having to fairly
fresh subdural hematomas, blood clots around the brain putting pressure on the brain.
Two distinct ones. He called them recent clotted blood, but there was no evidence of healing in this case.
So he found a finding that is abnormal. NARRATOR: Dr. Bennett did a little investigating of his own
and discovered that before Morgan died, her doctors noticed retinal hemorrhages, bleeding
in the back of her eyes. This told Dr. Bennett that Morgan's airway might have been
obstructed purposely when someone was trying to cause unconsciousness. Dr. Bennett did not believe that Morgan's
death was of unknown origin. He was convinced it was murder. The retinal hemorrhages and subdural hematomas
came from trauma, specifically, the violent shaking of shaken baby syndrome. Once those words of shaken baby
are spoken as the cause of death, there's no doubt it's a homicide. NARRATOR: Because of Morgan's death, prosecutors in Iowa
now fear that Michael's life was in danger. Michael had been hospitalized 18 times
in three different states. His sister Morgan was hospitalized 20 times before she died.
Every single episode noted Tanya's claim that she performed mouth to mouth resuscitation
before emergency personnel arrived. No one but Tanya had ever witnessed the onset of a seizure or breathing problem
in either child. We literally papered the office wall with flow charts and timelines so we could look for this pattern
that eventually resulted. NARRATOR: Prosecutors searched the medical literature and discovered some common elements
among those suspected of Munchausen syndrome by proxy. Most are women. They demand more and more tests and second opinions,
even after nothing has been found. The child's illness does not occur when in day care
or with a babysitter. There is a family history of other siblings with the same problem or an unexplained sibling death.
Suspects have an emotionally distant relationship with their spouse. 1/3 are in the medical field, mostly nurses.
The profile was a remarkable portrait of Tanya Reid, including the fact she was a nurse.
And that's not really a surprise, because if you were going to go to a physician
and make up something about your child, if you knew nothing about medicine whatsoever,
it's going to be harder to make any kind of a convincing story. Whereas if you have some sort of nursing background or health
background of some sort and you go to a physician, you might be able to lie about something more convincingly.
NARRATOR: And investigators were suspicious because no one other than Tanya had ever witnessed either of her children
having a seizure. I was the one that was always there. In the circumstances, yeah, I think any woman whose husband
works and she is a home-- stays home and takes care of the kids, it's gonna happen that way.
NARRATOR: The Polk County Juvenile Court determined that Michael was at risk living with his mother
and he was turned over to foster care. For the next two months, Michael had no seizures at all.
But prosecutors weren't sure they could prove felony child endangerment against Tanya Thaxton Reid in a court of law.
On August 10, 1988, Tanya Thaxton Reid was arrested and charged with felony child endangerment in the case of her son, Michael.
The trial began a little more than a year after the hospital nurse saw the scratches
on little Michael Reid's face. Munchausen syndrome by proxy is extremely difficult to prove.
There usually aren't any witnesses, and juries have difficulty understanding a parent's need
for this type of attention. If we have a problem with a broken bone and understanding
how that's physical abuse, imagine we come in with something called Munchhausen syndrome by proxy,
which is hard to spell, and we're not quite even sure how to pronounce it. NARRATOR: When the trial began, prosecutor Melodee Hanes
presented what she believed to be a pattern of abuse which began with Morgan and continued with Michael.
Hanes argued that Tanya Reid intentionally suffocated Michael on 18 separate occasions before reviving him
and taking him to the hospital. She also pointed out that Michael did not have any breathing problems or seizures during the time
he had been in foster care. The defense presented a report from the court appointed psychologist which said that Tanya
was completely normal. They also argued what Tanya had claimed all along, that there was a genetic cause
of Michael's seizures. The Texas neurologist testified that both Michael and Morgan had abnormal brains, which
possibly caused the seizures. Then, on the morning of March 2, Tanya Thaxton Reid
took the witness stand in her own defense. We were so nervous about what was going on,
and sure enough, she. Took the witness stand and you can never be sure until they do that.
And she got up there on the witness stand and she looked very prim and very proper,
and she sounded like the very best PTA suburban mom that you could find. NARRATOR: Tanya Reid denied killing her daughter, Morgan.
ATTORNEY: Did you kill him? No, sir, I definitely did not. ATTORNEY: Did you shake her to death?
No, sir. ATTORNEY: Did you bring about these seizures? No, I did not. NARRATOR: Then, Melodee Hanes began her cross-examination.
MELODEE HANES: Don't you think it would be an awfully big coincidence to know another child, unrelated to you,
in your care that had the same problem? TANYA REID: It-- it would. I don't know if it's a coincidence or not.
MELODEE HANES: Has that happened to you? TANYA REID: Not that I know of. MELODEE HANES: You have never been
in charge of another child that has had a similar problem to what your children have had?
TANYA REID: Not that I can remember right off, no. When she said no, I could have kissed
her because it was such a lie. It was such an egregious lie. NARRATOR: Hane's staff had done their homework.
In 1974, when Tanya was 15 years old, she was babysitting a child who had stopped breathing.
Tanya immediately called paramedics, saving the child's life. Tanya became a local hero and won
the town's Good Neighbor Award. MELODEE HANES: Mrs. Reid, would you tell the court what you received a good neighbor
award for in 1974? And I'm handing you state's exhibits 14 and 15. TANYA REID: I was babysitting Scott Simmons,
and the child quit breathing on me at the time. Mark Pennington is an outstanding trial attorney,
but I have never seen a defense lawyer turn whiter than a sheet like he did at that very moment.
And I was never really sure if he actually did know about that. NARRATOR: The prosecution was able to prove
that there had been a lifelong pattern of abusive behavior. On April 28, 1989, Tanya Thaxton Reid
was found guilty of felony child endangerment in the case of her son, Michael. She was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Not long afterwards, Tanya Reid was indicted in Texas for the murder of her daughter, Morgan.
PAUL HOUSTON: Somehow, Tanya Reid had become overly aggressive with Morgan and we felt that possibly what had happened
here was that in an effort to-- to block Morgan's air, she may have gone too far,
and she could not get the child to start breathing, in desperation, frustration, picked Morgan up and shook her
violently to start her breathing again, and that, in turn, caused the subdural hematoma.
NARRATOR: On December 13, 1993, the Texas jury found Tanya Thaxton Reid guilty of murder.
She was sentenced to 62 years in prison. The verdict was upheld on appeal. Despite the convictions, Tanya Reid continues
to maintain her innocence. Yes. Always will. I'll maintain it forever. I'm having to do my time, and I accept that.
I don't have to like it, but I have to accept it, which I have. Most of them deny, and they deny
even in the face of evidence. I mean, you could show videotape, if you had the type of Munchausen
by proxy where there was some act that you could capture on film. If you showed it to them, typically,
they'll continue to deny that that's going on. NARRATOR: The Iowa trial and trials in Texas
broke new ground in child abuse cases across the United States. MELODEE HANES: Justice was done.
I felt a sense of retribution for Morgan. But there is a poignant sadness to all of it.
It-- it had destroyed their entire family and so many lives. NARRATOR: Ray and Tanya Reid are now divorced.
Ray remarried. Michael and his older sister, Carolyn, both lived with their father and his new wife.
Tanya Reid is eligible for parole in 2009. It disturbs me that she is probably going to go through life denying what she did,
even though the court in Iowa has convicted her of child abuse, two juries here in--
in Texas have convicted her murder, and, you know, her son was taken from her and never had another episode.
It's a strange syndrome where someone just will never admit what they've done. She was offered a deal where she could have served maybe
eight or 10 years if she just admitted that she had done this, and she chose not to do that.
And this is the price that she's paying. I mean, she will sit there every day for 50 or 60 years,
or whatever good behavior she gets, and she will remember it, and you know that she knows she did.
She killed her baby. [music playing]

A two-year-old boy was rushed to the hospital suffering from brain seizures and breathing difficulties which puzzled doctors. Then the boy's sister provided an important clue and raised the possibility of a rare syndrome.

Forensic Files is the longest-running true crime series in television history. Evidence and interviews with experts help solve real crimes, disease outbreaks and accidents around the world.

Brief Summary

Tanya Reid was convicted of child endangerment and murder after her son Michael's medical emergencies revealed a pattern of abuse.

Key points

A Mother's Desperation. Tanya Reid's calm demeanor during her son's emergencies raises suspicions of Munchausen syndrome by proxy.
The Mysterious Illness. A two-year-old boy suffers from unexplained seizures and breathing problems, leading to a shocking diagnosis.
The Shocking Discovery. Scratches on Michael's face lead doctors to suspect abuse, unveiling a dark family history.
The Trial of Tanya Reid. Tanya Reid faces trial for child endangerment, with evidence suggesting a pattern of abuse.
Conviction and Consequences. Tanya Reid is found guilty of child endangerment and later indicted for her daughter's murder.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I don't have to like it, but I have to accept it.

Tanya Reid on her conviction.

19:02WatchJun 24, 2021

Tension

85/ 100High tension

More from Forensic Files

Solve the Crime

Read a real case one clue at a time, then see how your call held up against the investigators.