Kristina Fuelling Drowns Baby, Loses Faith
11/18/08 UPDATE - Today, Kristina Fuelling pleaded guilty to child cruelty and the attempted murder of her newborn daughter Faith. However, a Placer County judge found that Fuelling was not guilty of Faith’s drowning murder by reason of mental disease or defect - specifically, post partum depression. The charges to which Fuelling pleaded guilty stem from an incident three days prior to Faith’s death when Kristina Fuelling tried to smother her baby. Fuelling faces between six and fifteen years in prison for the attempted murder and child cruelty charges. She will be sentenced in January.
Granite Bay, CA - Sometime before six o’clock Sunday morning, Kristina Fuelling, 27, drowned her baby in a bathroom sink. Faith Evelyn Fuelling, born January 12, 2008, was eight days old. Baby Faith was pronounced dead at around 7:20 AM Sunday at Sutter Roseville Medical Center after lifesaving measures were exhausted. Feulling’s husband, whose name is not being released, made the call to 911 at 6:00 AM. His name is not being released as he is not a suspect in his daughter’s death.
Kristina Fuelling has no criminal record and there is no history of police or social service involvement with the family. Her Myspace has jellybeans for a background and no personal pictures at all. Investigators don’t yet have a motive, but say they are “confident” that Fuelling intentionally killed her baby.
Fuelling’s husband has gone into seclusion with his family, but police say there was no evidence of tension in the marriage, at least until Kristina killed his baby. Likewise, there is no evidence to suggest that Kristina suffered from past mental illness. Fuelling is being tested for drugs and alcohol, but police don’t seem to think that’s going to show up either, and plice even have said that she “didn’t seem frustrated” with the baby and voiced no complaints about her.
Basically, we have two scenarios that may unfold. One is that Kristina suffered a massive sleep-deprived postpartum psychotic break, which is quite possible. The other is that Kristina did not want this child, did not plan to have this child, and decided to do away with this child. Your guess is as good as mine, but she’s got some dead, dry eyes going on in that mugshot.
Kristina’s family issued a statement saying: “Our hearts are aching. We find it unbelievable that this loving mother has been accused of such a horrible act. The charges against Kristina do not reflect the good person whom she is known to be.”  Of course she is. I’m sure her husband and baby Faith think so too.
This is very true. My wife had PPD, and luckily had the sense to come to me and say she was afraid she was going to hurt our daughter, so she checked herself into the hospital, and was there for over three weeks.
That was almost four years ago. She now has bipolar disorder and is on three different meds, including anti-depressants and an anti-psychotic.
She loves her little girl so much that you couldn’t believe that she would ever want to hurt her, because it’s not a rational reaction. It’s a chemical imbalance and it’s impossible to beat it without help.
I feel bad for the baby and the mom. Once she is again sane, she will have to live with the guilt for the rest of her life.