Erika Murray, the Blackstone woman who was arrested on charges related to the discovery of three dead infants in her home, allegedly created an alternate persona and likely suffered from mental illness, her attorney said.

Police searched Murray’s home on Wednesday and Thursday, where they discovered three dead infants, as well as the remains of cats and a dog amid piles of waste. Police said they were first alerted to the case on August 28, The Boston Globe explained. Four children in the squalid house, ages 13, 10, three, and six months, were taken into state custody. Birth certificates showed Murray was the mother of the two oldest children, but police said they could not find birth certificates for the two youngest. Police believe she is the mother of all four children.

Erika Murray entered a not guilty plea on several charges in court on Friday morning. —Paul Kapteyn/AP/Worcester Telegram & Gazette


Murray was arrested on Thursday night. She was charged with two counts of child endangerment, among several other charges. Not guilty pleas were entered on her behalf on Friday morning.

The Globe provided more details of Murray’s alleged double life:

When the state took custody of the children in late August and confronted the mother about the severe neglect of the two youngest children, she said was embarrassed about her secret life with those two children. She also spoke of creating an alternate persona, and telling people she was babysitting another woman’s children when the toddler and baby were really her own, the investigator said.

Her attorney Keith Halpern said Murray may have suffered from a mental illness.

“You want answers in circumstances like these and you’re hoping there’s something rational and mental illness doesn’t always provide those kinds of answers,’’ Halpern told reporters. “Living in that house – who could live in that house who is not seriously mentally ill?’’