A woman who murdered her three daughters by smothering them sleeps with teddy bears made out of their clothing, she revealed in a handwritten letter to supporters.
Lauren Dickason, 42, was found guilty in August of murdering her two-year-old twin daughters Maya and Karla, and their six-year-old sister Lianè, at their home in Timaru, New Zealand on September 16, 2021.
The murder
She admitted killing the girls, but had pleaded not guilty to murder, arguing she was mentally disturbed at the time and didn’t know what she was doing was wrong.
Prosecutors, though, pointed to Dickason’s troubling phone messages and online history in the weeks before the killings, including comments about wanting to kill her children and Google searches for ‘most effective overdose in kids’.
The doctor thanked her online support group of around 1,500 for their support during what she describes as ‘a difficult time’, the Press newspaper reported.
Who killed the mother of three children in New Zealand?
Reporter Jake Kenny also revealed Dickason sent her followers a photo of the three teddy bears with her children’s names embroidered on their feet, and one of a painting of sunflowers she did.
On the second anniversary of the murders last month, supporters sent a package to Dickason at Hillmorton Hospital in Christchurch, which included South African food.
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This prompted her to write in the handwritten letter that it was ‘to commemorate the girls passing on the 16th of September’.
She said ‘I sleep with (the teddy bears) at night, to hold them close and remember all the wonderful cuddles my girls used to give me.’
Dickason and her husband Graham Dickason, who is also a doctor, had moved from South Africa to New Zealand just days before the murders, seeking a more stable lifestyle away from the turmoil in their home country.
The first attempt
Dickason at first tried to kill her children using zip ties and then suffocated them with pillows. She then placed them in their beds under the covers and tried to kill herself.
Her husband, an orthopedic surgeon, returned from a work dinner to find his children dead. He later told police that he knew his wife was struggling with her mental health and with motherhood but had no idea she was capable of killing.
The guilty verdict came after a four-week trial. The jury – of eight women and four men – rejected Dickason’s legal defences under New Zealand’s insanity and infanticide laws.
Jurors were not unanimous, voting 11-1 for conviction, a split allowed under New Zealand laws.
Dickason was reportedly motionless in the dock as the verdict was read out in the Christchurch High Court, and then cried quietly as she left.
Jurors were also heard crying, as were Dickason’s two lawyers.
Her parents issued a statement saying the deaths were the result of their daughter’s debilitating mental illness.
‘Post-partum depression is a terrible thing, as has been shown by what happened to our family on September 16, 2021,’ the family said, adding that their granddaughters were ‘taken from this life to another as a result of this crippling disease’.
