Kid-Killer Mom Wins Custody of Teen Boys

She was just 'temporarily insane,' says husband
By Mary Papenfuss,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 1, 2011 2:43 AM CDT
Kid-Killer Mom Wins Custody of Teen Boys
Trisha Conlon has lost a court action keeping her children out of the home her ex-husband shares with his first wife, who shot to death their two young daughters 20 years ago.   (AP Photo/Manuel Valdes)

A Washington mom is horrified that her teenage sons will be living with a stepmother who shot to death her two young daughters. The boys can stay with their biological dad and his first wife, Kristine Cushing, who says a bad reaction to Prozac is to blame for the killings of her two girls, ages 4 and 8, while they slept 20 years ago. The teen boys' mom, Trisha Conlon, says she's stunned that her ex-husband can "have marital relations with the person who killed their children—it just doesn't make sense to me." But she has lost a court challenge to stop her sons from staying in her ex-husband's home part of the year, reports AP.

Conlon's ex-husband points out that Cushing was not technically guilty of killing her children; she was found not guilty by reason of insanity. "There was no crime committed—there was a horrible tragedy that resulted in the deaths of our two daughters," he says. Trisha Conlon seems to feel that "anyone who suffers from temporary insanity is incapable of recovering from that condition. Kristine's doctors disagree," he notes. The commissioner who ruled against Conlon adds, "Would I ever want my children around [Cushing]? I would say no. But that is an emotional reaction coming from a parent." (More Kristine Conlon stories.)

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