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Tonight we are talking about the case of Marybeth Roe Tinning which kind of goes hand in hand with serial killer corner in our exclusive group, but is actually our full episode for this week.
But first, I’m gonna give you my weekly reminder to listen to our last episode – which was another look into our Patreon group – the Crazy Crime Roundup. Two couples who clearly shouldn’t have had children, a man who liked a specific type of woman, and another man who was over both of his ex-es. Listen to “Patreon Preview – Crazy Crime Roundup” #56.
And in our exclusive community that I keep mentioning, we have a ton of bonus episodes currently streaming. We currently have our episodes about the Johnny Depp vs Amber Heard trial. We added a bunch of evidence that helped in the final verdict as well as you get to her our opinions on what was going on. These bonuses were done with guest host Logic. We have an an episode with questions for our group – like what would you do if your step daughter walked around naked in front of her dad and how do you feel about a bride kicking her hot friend out of her wedding for being too beautiful. Join our Patreon during our summer sale for 50% off. Go to patreon.com/loveandmurder and subscribe using the Much Thanks Secret Tier. At the end of June, the sale will be over and the secret tier will disappear from public view.
www.patreon.com/loveandmurder Later on, I’ll tell you more about what you get from joining this community.
And now on to the show
Marybeth Roe was born on September 11, 1942 in Duanesburg, New York to Alton Lewis Roe and Ruth Roe. Her parents had two kids; her and a younger brother. Growing up, her parents were always away. Her mother spent most of her days working while her father was overseas fighting in World War II. Because of this, little Marybeth grew up being shuffled between relatives. There was even an incident where one of her older relatives told her that she was just an accident and that she was an unwanted child. She grew up with this in mind and when her little brother became a teenager, Marybeth told him that he was the one who their parents really wanted and not her.
Because of this mindset, Marybeth tried to kill herself several times – obviously she never succeeded.
In highschool, she was an average student – nothing out of the ordinary reportedly happened to her. She graduated in 1961 and wanted to go to college. Instead, she started working various low paying jobs. Eventually, she settled to work as a nursing assistant at Ellis Hospital in Schenectady, New York.
In 1963 Marybeth went on a blind date with her friends and met Joseph Tinning. I couldn’t find anything about Joe’s background; not even his birthdate, however; he didn’t have a criminal record so there’s that. He worked at General Electric, was a quiet man and seemed to take life easy. Because of his personality, he and Marybeth got along really well and they decided to take the next step.
In the Spring of 1965 Joe and Marybeth got married.
In May of 1967, two years after they married, they had their first child – a girl named Barbara. Then, three years later, in January 1970 they had a boy named Joseph Jr.
In October 1971, something unexpected happened; Marybeth’s father died of a heart attack.
On December 26, 1971 their third child, a girl they named Jennifer was born. Jennifer had acute meningitis and multiple brain abscesses. All of this had developed in utero.
Meningitis, on its own, causes inflammation of the protective membranes surrounding the brain and the spinal cord. Acute meningitis is usually caused by a bacterial or viral infection. If caught in time, acute bacterial meningitis can be cured with the appropriate antibiotic therapy, however; delaying treatment can lead to death. Jennifer never left the hospital and died on January 3, 1972 – a week after she was born.
Two weeks later, on January 19, 1972, 2 year old Joseph Jr was rushed to the ER. Marybeth told nurses that he’d had a seizure and choked on his own vomit. Doctor’s looked him over, but found nothing wrong with him. They kept him in the hospital for observation for a couple days and then released him when they still found nothing wrong.
A few hours after he was released from the hospital, on January 20, she brought Jr back to the ER and he was declared DOA – dead on arrival. His death was attributed to cardiopulmonary arrest – basically a heart attack. A 2 year old had a heart attack.
On March 1, 1972, 4 year old Barbara was rushed to the ER due to convulsions. The next day she died after being unconscious for several hours. The hospital ruled her death as a cause of Reye syndrome. Reye syndrome is where a child’s blood sugar drops drastically while the ammonia and acidity levels in their blood rises. This causes the liver to swell and swelling might also occur in the brain and cause seizures and loss of consciousness.
On November 22, 1973 their 4th child was born – a son they named Timothy.
On December 10, 1973, 3 weeks after he was born, Timothy was rushed to the ER and pronounced DOA. Marybeth told the doctors that she found him lifeless in his crib. They attributed his death to SIDS – sudden infant death syndrome – because they couldn’t find anything medically wrong with him. SIDS is a sudden unexplained death of a child that still can’t be explained even after a thorough autopsy is done. This happens to children under the age of 1.
Good Lord, how many children have died already?
In 1974, her husband was rushed to the hospital where he almost died of barbiturate poisoning. For those who don’t know, according to medlineplus, barbiturates are drugs that are depressants to the central nervous system. Basically they cause sleepiness and relaxation. When you get a low dose of this kind of drug, it makes the person seem intoxicated. Most overdoses usually involve mixing alcohol with barbiturates or barbiturates and opiates. The overdoses tend to cause comas or death.
Later, Joseph found out that Marybeth had gotten these barbiturate pills from a friend of hers whose daughter had epilepsy. She was using these pills to put it in his grape juice.
Funnily enough though – and I say funny even though this is anything but funny – Joseph decided not to press any charges. I don’t even know what to say here.
They continued their marriage as normal.
So normal, in fact, that in March 1975 they had their 5th child, a boy they named Nathan. By the Fall, September 2, he died while he was in the car with Marybeth. She told doctors that while driving with him in his carseat in the front seat, she’d noticed he’d stopped breathing.
Somehow, in August 1978, Marybeth and Joe were able to adopt a newborn named Michael.
On October 29th, they had their 6th child, a girl they named Mary Frances.
In January 1979, Marybeth rushed Mary Frances to the ER. She told the nurses that the baby was having a seizure. The baby came in unconsious, but the staff was able to revive her. In their records they listed it as an aborted SIDs case – meaning they stopped it from being SIDS.
In February 1979, Marybeth rushed Mary Frances back to the hospital in full cardiac arrest. The staff revived her, but she had irreversible brain damage and was put on life support. Two days later, she died after they took her off of life support.
On November 19, 1979, they had their 8th child, a boy named Jonathan. (This is actually their 7th child naturally, but 8th including the adopted Michael). By March 1980, Marybeth rushed to the hospital with Johnathan unconscious in her arms. The staff were able to revive him, but this time, due to the family history – which hospital staff by this time thought all of these issues was an unfortunate family genetic issue – they sent him to Boston Hospital for a thorough examination. Doctors found no valid medical reason why Jonathan had stopped breathing so they discharged him and sent him home. A few days later, Marybeth rushed him to the hospital where he was declared brain dead. He died on March 24, 1980.
On March 2, 1981, Marybeth took Micheal to the paediatrician wrapped in a blanket and unconscious. She said that she couldn’t wake him up and didn’t know what was wrong. By the time the Doctor looked at Michael, he was dead. The problem with this though was that Michael was adopted, so the theory of a genetic killing disorder in the Tinning family was no longer an excuse. Here, they began looking at Marybeth differently – from sympathetically to suspiciously.
Nevertheless, on August 22, 1985, they had their 9th child – a girl they named Tami Lynne.
On December 19, 1985 Marybeth had gone shopping with her neighbour, Cynthia Walter – who was also a practical nurse. After they came back, Cynthia got a frantic phone call from Marybeth and she rushed over to her house. Once she got there, she found Tami Lynne lying in her cot with blood staining her pillow, not moving, not breathing, and a pulse couldn’t be found. They rushed her to the ER, but she was declared DOA.
On December 20, 1985 only after 9 children had died, Betsy Mannix of the Schenectady County’s Department of Social Services and Bob Imfeld of the SPD visited the home. They had questions about Tami Lynne’s death.
Both Marybeth and Joe were taken to the police department for questioning. While being interrogated, Marybeth confessed that she had murdered Tami Lynne, Timothy, and Nathan. She said that she pressed a pillow over Tami Lynne’s face because the baby “fussed and cried.” Soooo she was busy being a baby? She said that with Timothy and Nathan, “I smothered them with a pillow because I’m not a good mother.” She was arrested and charged wtih the murder of Tami Lynne. That’s it?!
Bail was set at $100,000, which she made and was released until her trial date. Really? She later recanted her confession stating that it was made under duress and that police had threatened her. She also said she’d asked for a lawyer and her requests were denied.
During the investigation, lead forensic pathologist and member of the New York State Police’s special forensic unit confirmed that Tami Lynne’s death was caused by smothering. After this, investigators started looking at the deaths of her other 7 children to be suspicious. The only one they believed was an actual death – and not murder – was Jennifer’s, the third child who died of acute meningitis.
On June, 22, 1987 in Schenectady County Court, the murder trial of Marybeth was started. It involved a lot of doctors and experts since the death of the Tinning children were labelled as strange. Tami Lynne’s paediatrician testified on behalf of the prosecution, Dr. Bradley Ford said that he suggested to Marybeth that she should install a device that acts like an alarm that monitors the baby’s heart rate and breathing, which would make sense since she already lost some of her babies in the past from an unknown illness. Mysteriously, the Tinning couple disagreed to use such a device. What kind of parents would actually think like that?
She did claim that her father was mean to her, abused her physically and even locked her in the closet, but when the time came that she had to do her court testimony, she denied everything and went on to say that her father never had any bad intentions. Instead of telling the court how she was abused heavily, she went on to say that she was hit by a flyswatter by her father because he had arthritis and his hands were not of much use, and she got locked up because she deserved it. She may act weird but she wasn’t an offender/delinquent growing up, unlike some other kids who were abused and went on to grow up in and out of juvie.
Despite this, the trial only lasted a month and on July 17 1987, 44 year old Marybeth Tinning was convicted of 2nd degree murder in Tami Lynne’s death. The jury however, didn’t agree that she did the murder deliberately and aquitted her of that count. Instead they charged her with a minor degree of homicide citing her “depraved indifference to human life.” Her husband on the other hand was overwhelmed and wasn’t really sure about what was happening. Joseph said that he had a conversation with his wife right after she got questioned by the police and she confessed that she killed Tami Lynne, but he still thinks that Marybeth is innocent. He stated to newspapers that sometimes he was suspicious of his wife, but convinced himself not to be, “You have to trust your wife. She has her things to do, and as long as she gets them done, you don’t ask questions.”
The verdict came back, guilty with Marybeth getting 20 years to life in prison which is 5 years shorter than the maximum penalty of this crime. When she received her verdict, she started crying.
She was taken to the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women where she immediately filed an appeal saying that her confession wasn’t given voluntarily and that evidence wasn’t enough for her to get locked up. Her appeal was denied by the New York State Supreme Court’s Appellate Division.
In 2007 she became eligible for parole and started her campaign of getting paroled.
On February 5, 2007 she was denied parole citing being “incompatible with public safety” and letting her out would “diminish the seriousness of her crime.”
“This decision is based on the following factors: You stand convicted of the serious offense of murder in which you caused the death of your infant daughter by smothering her with a pillow. This was a heinous crime. You were in a position of trust and violated that trust by taking the life of an innocent child.”
On January 26, 2009 she met with the parole board again. This time, her only explanation for what she did was that she was “going through bad times” when she committed the murder(s).
Parole commissioner, Mary Ross asked Marybeth “This charge involved the murder of your 4-month-old child who was smothered with a pillow, is this right?”
“Yes, ma’am,”
“Did you do that?”.
“Yes, ma’am, I did,”.
She then asked Marybeth what was going through her head as her children were dying.
Marybeth said “Two things that I wanted in life was to be married to someone who cared for me and to have children and, other than that, I can’t give you a reason.”
She maintained that SIDS was the cause of death of her other children.
The parole board again denied her parole, stating that her remorse was “superficial at best.”
She was denied parole again due to her lack of remorse.
She was eligible for parole again in January 2011.
In 2011, Marybeth was supported by people from Georgetown University Law Center and people she worked with in prison, describing her as the “most loving, most generous, caring person that they have ever met.”
This time she said” After the deaths of my other children … I just lost it, (I) became a damaged, worthless piece of person and when my daughter was young, in my state of mind at that time, I just believed that she was going to die also. So I just did it.
Again she was denied.
When questioned about the murder during her 2013 appearance, she said, “It’s just — I can’t remember. I mean, I know I did it, but I can’t tell you why. There is no reason.” The parole board stated “This was an innocent, vulnerable victim who was entrusted in your care as her mother, and you viciously violated that trust causing a senseless loss of this young life.” The parole board then said “…discretionary release would deprecate the severity of the crime as to undermine respect for the law, as you placed your own interest above those of society’s youth.”
In the interview, Ross noted Tinning has certificates of achievement from nonviolence and anger management programs and that she now works for a chaplain. Ross and parole commissioner Jared Brown also cited letters of support for Tinning from people she has worked with in prison, as well as from Georgetown Law School, with some describing her as the “most loving, most generous, caring person that they have ever met.”
At one point Ross asked Tinning, “When you look back at your actions … what insight do you have into it or yourself?”
Tinning replied: “When I look back I see a very damaged and just a messed up person and I have tried to become a better person while I was here, trying to be able to stand on my own and ask for help when I need it, others when they need it. … Sometimes I try not to look in the mirror and when I do, I just, there are no words that I can express now. I feel none. I’m just, just none.”
Tinning, noting she worked with AIDS patients in prison, said she would like to volunteer with such patients if released — and that some places have told her husband, Joseph, they would be willing to use her.
She said she would live with her husband if released. He visits once a month but it is “getting harder,” she told the board.
She was denied again.
In February 2015, the parole board again denied her release, finding that she continued to demonstrate no understanding nor any remorse for taking her child’s life.
She was denied parole for the sixth time in January 2017. The parole board ordered her to return in 18 months, rather than the previous standard of 24 months.
Tinning (aged 76) was released on parole August 21, 2018. She served more than 31 years of her 20-years-to-life sentence before being granted parole. Tinning’s husband, Joseph, who supported her throughout her incarceration, was there for her release. As part of her release, Tinning will remain under parole supervision for the rest of her life. A Department of Corrections spokesperson stated Tinning lives in Schenectady County, in upstate New York. She has a curfew and must attend domestic violence counselling.
As of November 2021, it was confirmed that the Tinnings are living a quiet life in Schenectady County. Where’s justice here?
That is the case of Marybeth Tinning. She’s out of jail and all of her kids are did.
So, after everything you’ve heard, do you agree with what’s happened with this murderer? Should she really be out there living a peaceful life?
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