Ellen Boehm was born Ellen Booker in 1960. At the young age of 18, she met Paul Boehm, an already married man, and married him. By the age of 31, Ellen Boehm was put behind bars in Missouri for murdering her 2 sons and attempting to murder her daughter.
The Boehm Story
Paul and Ellen Boehm had 2 children together with 1 on the way when Paul informed Ellen that he was exposed to Agent Orange and needed to travel to Texas for urgent medical Treatment. He lied, and in reality, he ran off with his young lover.
It was at this time that Ellen Boehm became a single mother of 3, and greed took over her life.
Ellen Boehm, Photo byMissouri Department of Corrections
Addicted to wrestling, she would track and follow the wrestlers of old, even going so far as to write them racy letters and tell people stories of their trysts together. Except, those sexual encounters were not true.
Her best friend, Deanne, loved wrestling as well. She was with Ellen for most of their adventures, and she knew Ellen's stories to be untrue, but Ellen had been through so much that Deanne decided to let her have her little white lies. After all, who was she really hurting?
On Thanksgiving day in 1988, Ellen's youngest boy, David, was turning blue on the floor. She called 9-1-1, and paramedics were on their way. They performed life-saving resuscitation and were able to keep him alive. However, tragically, he was braindead, and Ellen opted to take him off life support.
The day her 2-year-old child David died, she was non-emotional. A friend noted that she was calm and cold when she told the doctor to pull her son off life support.
That same evening, when making funeral arrangements, she was more worried about picking up the latest wrestling tickets than anything related to her deceased child. She spoke on the phone with Deanne and asked her about attending the upcoming wrestling match at Kiel Auditorium.
During her bereavement time, she used it to attend out-of-town wrestling matches. Funeral expenses for David were $2348, but she never paid them.
The death of her first child is the event that changed everything. She received $5000 from the life insurance through her employer, so 8 months later she began shopping to put her 2 remaining children on life insurance policies totaling around $100,000 each.
Unfortunately, you know where this story is going.
On 9/13/1989, she attempted to kill her 8-year-old daughter, Jennifer, by throwing a hair dryer in the bath with her, but it didn't work. Luckily for her, she was able to convince her young children to lie to paramedics and authorities about what happened. If only the police could've overheard what she told them right before they got there. Jennifer and Steven both said that Steven threw the hair dryer in the tub, even though Steven was asleep at the time of the incident.
Just 12 days later, another horrifying event unfolded. She called into work that morning saying that Steven, her 4-year-old, was sick. He had been vaccinated a few days prior, and Ellen used this as an excuse. But by 3:45 PM that day, Steven was pronounced dead. This time, the medical examiner, her best friend, and her ex-husband became suspicious. Deanne called authorities with her suspicions. Paul was not notified of Steven's death until 10 days after.
After a 2 year investigation, the FBI gave local authorities tips on how to elicit a confession from Ellen. In September of 1991, Ellen Boehm was arrested and charged with two counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder. She gave a full confession on the murders of her 2 children, David and Steven, and the attempted murder of her daughter, Jennifer.
Ellen had smothered David with a pillow on Thanksgiving. She threw the hairdryer in the tub with Jennifer, and she smothered Steven with a pillow.
Jennifer's current whereabouts are unknown, as she was placed in the foster care system. Her father, Paul, was deemed an unfit parent for failing to pay child support among other things.
Ellen accepted a plea deal for life in prison without the possibility of parole. She is currently serving her life sentence at Chillicothe Correctional Center in Missouri. Sources:
https://www.grunge.com/930920/ellen-boehms-failed-attempt-to-murder-her-daughter-using-a-hairdryer/
https://web.mo.gov/doc/offSearchWeb/offenderInfoAction.do
https://www.themidwestcrimefiles.com/post/hush-little-babies-the-story-of-the-boehm-children