Mother Who Smothered Sons Receives A 17-Year Sentence

Stephanie Pasicznyk Tanner had herself sterilized in the hope of receiving a lighter sentence for repeatedly smothering her baby sons, killing one.

But a Spokane County Superior Court judge on Tuesday gave the mother an exceptional sentence anyway, five years longer than the one proposed in a plea agreement.

Judge Tari Eitzen said she could not “in good conscience” go along with a recommended 12-year sentence and ordered that Tanner be forbidden forever from contact with children. Then Eitzen sent the 27-year-old former housewife to prison for 17 years.

Tanner pleaded guilty in February to second-degree murder and second-degree assault. She has been diagnosed with Munchausen’s syndrome by proxy, a rare psychological disorder in which a parent is driven to harm children to get attention and sympathy.

Spokane police said Tanner repeatedly smothered both her sons until they stopped breathing. She would rush them to the hospital, where puzzled doctors revived them and put them through exhaustive medical tests that were always inconclusive.

Her first son died in 1989, after a trip to the hospital. He was 8 months old.

Several years later, when Tanner started bringing a second son to the hospital, police and doctors became involved. Suspecting abuse but having no evidence of physical injury, they sent the child to Children’s Hospital in Seattle, where a specialist concluded Tanner was the sick one.

Police then launched a series of search warrants that included the seizure of her diary. In it, Tanner admitted killing her first son and trying to kill the second.

She was arrested May 10, 1994 in the Spokane Valley while on her way to her therapist’s office.

Her second son, 2-year-old Jason, suffers cerebral palsy as a result of the continuous smotherings. He now lives with his father.

Deputy Prosecutor Ed Hay told the judge that Tanner had voluntarily been sterilized. That and a lifetime of supervision by parole officers seemed adequate to ensure that Tanner never killed again, he said.

Eitzen went along with the permanent supervision for Tanner. The judge also prohibited her from ever working in places where elderly or disabled people are present.