That evening, she wrote an email to Folbigg’s attorney and said she was involved. When she started investigating, she thought her scientific work would help guide the legal system closer to the truth. Little did she know that over the course of two long years she would be faced with painful questions about her own life — as a scientist and as a parent. In an email to her lawyer, she wrote: “As a mother, I can’t think of a more deserving reason to invest the time and effort in. I find it hard to believe anyone is in jail for this. .”
Kathleen Megan Briton was born in the winter of 1967 in the working-class neighborhood of Balmain, Sydney. Her father, Thomas, was a forklift driver at the nearby pier. Her mother, Kathleen (for whom she is named), worked in a factory. Thomas violent; Kathleen drank a lot. After a particularly brutal fight, Kathleen fled, leaving her young 18-month-old daughter with Thomas. A few weeks later, while intoxicated, Thomas ambushed his wife in the street and asked her to come home. When she refused, he stabbed her 24 times with a 25-centimeter carving knife. As she lay dying, he held her in his arms, kissing her face while waiting for the police to arrive.
For a year, baby Kathleen was put in the care of her aunt and grandmother. She was then sent to a nursery, and from there to a foster family in Newcastle, a coal mining town 100 miles north of Sydney. The new family fed and clothed Kathleen and sent her to school, but her adoptive mother was adamant and, according to court documents, hit her with a handkerchief when she misbehaved. squid. Her adoptive father was far away. When she was 17, Kathleen left high school and moved in with a friend. One weekend, she was dancing at a club when she met a handsome man named Craig Folbigg. He is 23 years old, well-spoken and works as a forklift driver at the biggest mining company in town. They started dating, fell in love and quickly moved into an apartment in the suburbs of Newcastle. Craig, from a large Catholic family, lost his mother when he was a teenager. He was eager to start a family. Kathleen, too, craves stability.
In 1987, when Kathleen was 20 years old, the couple married. A year and a half later, in early February 1989, Kathleen gave birth to their first child. They named the boy Caleb. On February 20, Kathleen remembers having to get up to feed her baby at 1 a.m. and then go back to sleep. About two hours later, she got up to go to the bathroom and went to check on him. Caleb was not breathing. “My baby, there’s something wrong with my baby,” she scream. Craig rushed over and tried CPR, and he told Kathleen to call an ambulance. The medical staff were unable to resuscitate the boy. He was declared dead at just 19 days old.
Folbiggs’ second child, Patrick, was born a year later. Late one night when the boy was four months old, Kathleen heard Patrick cough. She went to his crib to comfort him, and he fell asleep again. Around 4:30 in the morning, she looked at him and saw that he was soft, pale, unable to breathe. Craig again attempted CPR while Kathleen called paramedics. They arrived quickly and took the baby to the hospital, where he was resuscitated. Doctors at the hospital concluded that Patrick had suffered what is known as an “apparently life-threatening event”, a mysterious syndrome that mainly affects children under the age of 1. Patrick has brain damage that has caused partial blindness and frequent seizures—and will now require near-constant supervision. Kathleen, who had been hoping to return to work after the birth, decided to stay home to look after the boy while Craig worked the demanding new job at a local car dealership. About 4 months later, on February 13, 1991, Kathleen called Craig at work, frantically. “It happened again,” she cried. “I need you.” When Craig got home, Patrick was dead. It is 8 months old.
In October 1992, Kathleen gave birth to her third child and the couple named her Sarah. This time, the Folbiggs family moved Sarah’s bed into their bedroom so they could keep a close eye on her as she slept. On August 30, 1993, Craig put Sarah to bed around 10:30 pm. Hours later, Kathleen remembers going to check on her health and listening to her breathing. When she heard nothing, she turned on the light. Sarah turned pale and motionless. The little girl was declared dead at the age of 10 months and 16 days.
