The Voices In Christine's Head

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Discretion is advised. This is ten
minted murder. Christine Falling was born in

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Perry, Florida, in nineteen sixty
three. Her original last name was Slaughter,

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but it was changed to Falling after
her sixteen year old mother surrendered Christine

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and her older sister for adoption when
they were both toddlers. Christine's father was

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five decades older than her teenage mother. He was a violent and controlling man

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who terrorized his underaged spouse from the
moment she was born. Christine's childhood was

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tough. She suffered from seizures,
had aggressive outbursts, and was described as

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being dull witted by the people that
knew her. For the rest of her

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life, her language skills never advanced
beyond a sixth grade level. As a

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young child, Christine developed a habit
of wreaking havoc on the neighborhood cats.

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She later admitted that she strangled the
animals as a way of showing them her

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love. After she heard the myth
that cats had nine lives, she decided

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to test the theory by throwing cats
from the top of the tallest buildings that

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she could find, which was usually
fatal. By the time she was rehomed

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to a children's refuge at nine years
of age. Christine had become obese and

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you couldn't count the number of cats
that she had harmed. At this point.

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The staff at the children's home described
her as being a disobedient thief who

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lied for fun, and the other
children bullied Christine for her low intelligence and

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obesity. When she was only fourteen
years old, Christine got married to a

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man who was a decade older than
her, but the marriage lasted for less

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than two months. Their reason for
divorce as frequent outbursts of violence and constant

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fighting, which was unsurprising giving that
Christine had grown up believing that strangulation was

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an appropriate way to show love.
During one of the arguments she had with

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her husband, Christine grabbed a twenty
five pounds stereo, which she threw at

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him as hard as she could,
and this was likely not the outcome that

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the man expected when he chose a
fourteen year old bride, and the couple

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broke up shortly afterwards. After her
marriage ended, Christine's mental health plummeted for

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more than a year. She became
an extreme hypochondriac, constantly convinced that she

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was seriously ill. Every week she
thought she had a different disease. Over

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this time period, she took herself
to the hospital at least once a week,

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but every time the doctors found no
sign of illness that they could treat.

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Christine was now in her mid teens, had already been divorced, had

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no stable income. She decided to
work as a babysitter, caring for the

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kids of her family members and neighbors. Despite her intellectual difficulties and her disheveled

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appearance, Christine quickly became a trusted
babysitter and was known for being reliable and

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good with children, but when she
turned seventeen, this reputation began to change.

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On the twenty fifth of February nineteen
eighty, she was tasked with caring

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for a local girl, two year
old Cassidy Johnson. Three days later,

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Cassidy passed away. Cassidy's parents rushed
her to the hospital shortly after Christine's babysitting

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shift ended, and the doctor believed
that Cassidy's strange symptoms were due to encephalitis,

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which is inflammation in the brain,
but Cassidy never responded to treatment,

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and on February twenty eighth she died. The doctor ordered an autopsy, which

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revealed that Cassidy wasn't sick with encephalitis. Instead, she died from a severe

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head injury. The police immediately investigated
how Cassidy had gotten such a serious head

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wound, and the girl's parents quickly
pointed to the babysitter, Christine Falling.

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In an interview with the police,
Christine provided an explanation for Cassidy's head injury.

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She had climbed out of her crib
and fallen to the floor, knocking

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her unconscious, but Christine did not
explain why she hadn't told the parents about

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the injury when they came to pick
up their daughter. The story didn't add

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up, but the police didn't have
any hard evidence that Christine was lying,

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and they had no choice but to
close the investigation. Meanwhile, Christine decided

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to do what any innocent person would
do. She immediately fled town and relocated

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to Lakeland, Florida. Once she
was safely away from the rumors. Back

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in her hometown of Perry, she
began to advertise her babysitting services again.

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It was only two months before another
child died while being looked after by Christine

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four year old Jeffrey Davis. Unlike
Cassidy, who fought for a life for

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three days, Jeffrey died quickly and
suddenly. Because Jeffrey had no medical conditions

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and there had been no warning signs
leading to his death, his body was

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autopsied. The only abnormality that medical
examiner found was myocarditis, inflammation of the

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heart, which was unlikely to be
the cause of Jeffrey's death. Jeffrey's funeral

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was held three days later, and
his uncle and aunts needed a babysitter for

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their own toddler so that they could
attend the service. For the second time

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in a week, a young child
was left in the care of Christine falling,

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and once again the child died.
According to Christine, Jeffrey's cousin was

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taking a nap but never woke up. The toddler's physician suggested that Jeffrey and

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his younger cousin might have both caught
the same viral infection, leading to their

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sudden deaths some unknown viral infection.
It was only a matter of time before

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the residence of Lakeland figured out that
the two children had died in the care

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of the same babysitter. Before they
had a chance to make the connection,

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Christine moved back home to Perry.
She knew she wouldn't be able to get

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another babysitting job, so she worked
as a housekeeper for Wilbur's Swindle, an

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elderly man with severe disabilities. This
job only lasted one day. Within hours

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of Christine arriving at Wilbur's house,
the old man dropped dead in the kitchen.

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Due to his poor health and old
age, local police never looked into

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the death, believing it was just
a heart attack. Within weeks of wilbur

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Swindle's sudden death, Christine was invited
to go shopping with her stepsister. Her

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stepniece, eight month old Jennifer,
came with them. Christine's stepsister decided that

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she would quickly run into the supermarket, leaving Christine alone in the car with

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Jennifer, But when she returned to
the car minutes later, she found Christine

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panicking and her daughter unresponsive. Christine
told her that Jennifer had suddenly stopped breathing.

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Because of Jennifer's age, doctors believed
that her cause of death was sudden

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infant death syndrome or SIDS, and
the case was never investigated. Christine Falling

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was followed by a string of mysterious
deaths, but despite making almost no effort

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to hide her involvement, she'd been
very lucky. All of the deaths appeared

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to be of somewhat natural causes,
a viral infection, a heart attack,

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sudden infant death syndrome. It was
only a year later, when Christine was

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babysitting a ten week old baby,
that her luck finally ran out. It

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was the same story that Christine had
told every time. It was the second

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of July nineteen eighty two, and
Christine was caring for newborn Travis Coleman when

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he suddenly stopped breathing. Travis's grieving
parents didn't believe that their healthy baby had

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suddenly died of natural causes, and
they agreed to have their son's body autopsied.

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The autopsy found no sign of illness
or disease, but the medical examiner

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found undeniable evidence that Travis Coleman had
died of suffoc There was no chance that

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his death had been an accident.
The ten week old baby had been murdered,

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and Christine Falling had been alone with
him when he died. Local police

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immediately paid Christine a visit. During
her interrogation, Christine quickly confessed that she

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had killed three of the children by
holding a blanket over their noses and mouths,

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a method that she called smother ration. According to Christine, she had

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murdered the babies in response to the
overwhelming voices that she heard in her head,

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which repeatedly chanted, killed the baby, killed the baby. She eventually

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did with the voices asked, and
chose suffocation as her method of killing because

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she said she had seen it while
watching television shows. She described smothering the

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babies as being simple and easy,
telling the officer that no one would hear

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them scream. Not only had Christine
confessed to the crimes, but she also

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seemed to be remorseless of her actions. She was convicted of murder and sentenced

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to life behind bars with no chance
of parole for at least twenty five years.

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Apart from wanting to obey the voices
in her head, Christine was never

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able to give a clear motive for
the killings. It seemed as if she

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simply had the urge to kill and
saw no problem with following through on that

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urge, even though she was recognized
as being intellectually handicapped and mentally ill,

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Christine was never found to be legally
insane. Her application for parole was rejected

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in twenty seventeen and her next hearing
will be in twenty twenty four. That

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is ten Minute Murder for today,
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