sometimes it's not. but when it is there, you have those tools, you're able to find that little bit of evidence. it makes all the difference in the world and allows you to get people like hadden clark off the when a two-year-old boy was rushed to the hospital suffering from brain seizures and breathing problems, doctors could not find the cause of the illness, but the boy's sister provided an important clue. the possibility of a rare syndrome few had ever heard of. in 1987 ray and tanya reed, along with their two children, had just moved to urbandale, iowa. it was ray reed's fourth job transfer in three years. >> every time we moved it was an advancement for him, and i was

ready, you know, any time thinking where do i want to go. >> tanya reid was a housewife who stayed home caring for their children, 6-year-old carolyn and 2-year-old michael. michael stopped breathing two days after moving to town. fortunately tanya was a nurse and knew exactly what to do. she performed cpr and immediately took him to the emergency room of iowa methodist medical center. >> it was a fever of viral etiology, dehydration and vomiting. that was a pretty standard diagnosis and situation. >> after he was stabilized michael was given a complete physical examination. he had a prior history of neurologic seizures, but doctors could not determine what was causing it. a few months later the reid's moved into a larger unit in the same complex. ray was working extremely long hours and tanya was lonely.

>> i think in the beginning the relationship was okay. it was enough for tanya because she was working and she had enough outlets in her life to, you know, keep herself busy and feel that she was happy, but when she -- you know, as the relationship went on and the years went by i think there was an emptiness and a lack of true affection between the two of them. >> three months later michael had another episode. he stopped breathing and turned blue. his mother called the paramedics. when they arrived, tanya was on the floor of the living room giving michael mouth to mouth resuscitation. at the hospital tests could not determine the cause of michael's breathing problems. the child's pediatrician speculated that michael might simply be holding his breath. one week later paramedics were called to the reid residence once again, michael had another

breathing episode. >> she appeared very calm for such serious natures. to be doing mouth to mouth on a child, speaking for myself, if it was my child, i'd be a nervous wreck. >> just three years earlier michael's older sister morgan died unexpectedly at 9 months old. they said that morgan died of cardiorespiratory arrest of unknown origin. like michael, morgan had a history of breathing problems and numerous hospitalizations before she died. morgan's death was a stressful time for the reid's marriage. >> we did have stress when morgan died. any couple will go through stress when there's a death in the family, a child death, and we did stay together through all that. >> one month later paramedics were called to the reid's home once again. tanya successfully resuscitated michael before he was taken to the hospital. >> numerous medical workups had

been done to try to find a cause of this, including a number of pediatric specialists and pediatric subspecialists and nothing had been found. >> doctors were mystified. what was wrong with michael. narrator: these are the tennis shoes skater kid: whoa narrator: that got torture tested by teenagers and cried out for help. from the surprised designers. who came to the rescue with a brilliant fix male designer: i love it narrator: which created thousands of new customers for the tennis shoes that got torture tested by teenagers. the internet of everything is changing manufacturing. is your network ready?

doctors at iowa methodist medical center couldn't find the cause of the seizures and breathing problems 2-year-old michael reid was experiencing. a few days after they returned from iowa, michael stopped breathing again. the paramedics were baffled and their logbooks showed it. >> things didn't fit together that a kid would hold his breath long enough to make him have seizures or quit breathing. >> then, on sunday, february 7, while ray reid was relaxing downstairs -- >> come upstairs, michael's in trouble!

>> he heard tanya's screams from the master bedroom. michael was having another breathing episode and was rushed to the hospital. >> the nurse on duty noticed something unusual. on michael's cheek was some red parallel scratch marks, scratches that looked like they had been made by the boy's fingernails. to the nurse, it looked as if michael had tried to remove someone's hands from around his neck and mouth. just a few moments later, an interesting coincidence, tanya reid asked the nurse to look at her finger. it was bleeding. >> i don't think i probably would have noticed if this had been my child, that i had a scratch on my finger and i certainly wouldn't have mentioned it to anybody. >> michael was only two years old and too young to talk. so it was impossible for doctors and social workers to interview him. but the scratch marks on michael's face and tanya's bleeding finger led doctors to suspect a rare form of child abuse called munchausen syndrome by proxy.

it first appeared in the medical literature in 1977 and named after baron munchausen, famous for fabricating fabulous tales of his battlefield exploits. munchausen syndrome by proxy describes adults who either fabricate or actually cause illness in their own children. they do this because they crave the attention and concern of the medical staff, emergency personnel and even family members and friends. when a social worker interviewed the reids at the hospital about the possibility of child abuse, tanya was furious. >> angry and hurt that it would even be -- surprised, shock, every term that you probably went through, every form of emotion there is. >> tanya was given a lie detector test. when she was asked if she ever intentionally caused harm to her

children, she said, no, and passed. in addition to the scratches on michael's face, there was a pattern to the episodes, a pattern that was clear to paramedics from their time-dated logbook. >> these calls were happening on the same days and roughly the same time of day. and that struck me odd as well. >> almost exclusively, the calls to the paramedics were on tuesdays and fridays, always about the same time of the day, in the late afternoon or early evening. for the most part, they coincided with the days and times ray reid was at work. the reids were convinced that michael had a similar condition to the one that killed their daughter, morgan, while they were living in texas. to find out, medical detectives in iowa decided to conduct their own investigation into morgan reid's death. curling up in bed

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morgan reid was just 9 months old when she died in 1984. morgan's medical records revealed repeated visits to the hospital emergency rooms in texas for breathing problems and seizures before she died.

the cause of death listed on morgan's autopsy report said, cardiorespiratory arrest of unknown origin. but three other words in the report leaped out. acute subdural hematoma, a swelling in the brain which contains blood. at the bottom of the page, the pathologist had written no evidence of child abuse. iowa's medical examiner was alarmed. >> the autopsy mentioned having two fairly fresh subdural hematomas, blood clots putting pressure on the brain, calling them recently clotted blood but no evidence of healing in this case. he found a finding that is abnormal. >> dr. bennett did a little investigating of his own and discovered that before morgan died, her doctors noticed

retinal hemorrhages, bleeding in the back of her eyes. this told dr. bennett that morgan's airway might have been obstructed purposefully when someone was trying to cause unconsciousness. dr. bennett did not believe that morgan's death was of unknown origin. he was convinced it was murder. >> the retinal hemorrhages and subdural hematomas came from trauma, specifically the violent shaking of the shaken baby syndrome. >> once those words of shaken baby is spoken as the cause of death, there's no doubt it is a homicide. >> because of morgan's death, prosecutors in iowa now feared michael's life was in danger. michael had been hospitalized 18 times in 3 different states. his sister, morgan was hospitalized 20 times before she died. every single episode noted tanya's claim that she performed mouth-to-mouth resuscitation before emergency personnel

arrived. no one but tanya had ever witnessed the onset of the seizure or breathing problem in either child. >> we literally papered the office wall with flow charts and timelines so we could look for this pattern that eventually resulted. >> prosecutors searched the medical literature and discovered some common elements among those suspected of munchausen's syndrome by proxy. most are women. they demand more and more tests and second opinions even after nothing has been found. the child's illness does not occur when in daycare or with a babysitter. there is a family history of other siblings with the same problem or an unexplained sibling death. suspects have an emotionally distant relationship with their spouse. one-third are in the medical

field, mostly nurses. the profile was a remarkable portrait of tanya reid, including the fact she was a nurse. >> that's not really a surprise because if you were going to go to a physician and make up something about your child, if you knew nothing about medicine whatsoever, it would be harder to make any kind of a convincing story, whereas if you have some sort of nursing background or health background of some sort and you go to the physician, you might be able to lie about something more convincingly. >> and investigators were suspicious because no one other than tanya had ever witnessed either of her children having a seizure. >> i was the one that was always there. in circumstances, yeah, but i think any woman whose husband works and she stays home and takes care of the kids, it's going to happen that way. >> the polk county juvenile court determined that michael was at risk living with his mother, and he was turned over

to foster care. for the next two months, michael had no seizures at all. but prosecutors weren't sure they could prove felony child endangerment against tanya thaxton reid in a court of law.

on august 10th, 1988, tanya thaxton reid was arrested and charged with felony child endangerment in the case of her son, michael. the trial began a little more than a year after the hospital nurse saw the scratches on little michael reid's face. munchausen syndrome by proxy is extremely difficult to prove. there usually aren't any witnesses and juries have difficulty understanding a parent's need for this type of attention. >> if we have a problem with a broken bone and understanding how that's physical abuse, imagine when we come in with something called munchausen syndrome by proxy, which is hard to spell and we're not even quite sure how to pronounce it. >> when the trial began, prosecutor melanie haynes presented what she believed to be a pattern of abuse which began with morgan and continued with michael. haynes argued that tanya reid

intentionally suffocated michael on 18 separate occasions before reviving him and taking him to the hospital. she also pointed out that michael did not have any breathing problems or seizures during the time he had been in foster care. the defense presented a report from the court-appointed psychologist which said that tanya was completely normal. they also argued what tanya had claimed all along, that there was a genetic cause of michael's seizures. the texas neurologist testified that both michael and morgan had abnormal brains, which possibly caused the seizures. then, on the morning of march 2nd, tanya thaxton reid took the witness stand in her own defense. >> and she looked very prim and very proper, and she sounded like the very best pta suburban

mom that you could find. >> tanya reid denied killing her daughter, morgan. >> did you kill her? >> no, sir, i definitely did not. >> did you shake her to death? >> no, sir. >> did you bring about these seizures? >> no, i did not. >> then melodee hanes began her cross-examination. >> don't you think it would be an awfully big coincidence to know another child unrelated to you in your care that would have the same problem? >> it would. i don't know if it's a coincidence or not. >> has that happened to you? >> not that i know of. >> you have never been in charge of another child that has had a similar problem to what your children have had? >> not that i can remember right off. no. >> when she said no, i could have kissed her because, i mean, it was such a lie. it was such an egregious lie.

>> hane's staff had done their homework. in 1974, when tanya was 15 years old, she was baby-sitting a child who had stopped breathing. tanya immediately called paramedics, saving the child's life. tanya became a local hero and won the town's good neighbor award. >> mrs. reid, would you tell the court what you received a good neighbor award for in 1974? and i'm handing you state's exhibits 14 and 15. >> i was baby-sitting scott simmons and the child quit breathing on me at the time. >> mark pennington is an outstanding trial attorney, but i have never seen a defense lawyer turn whiter than a sheet like he did at that very moment. i was never really sure if he actually did know about that. >> the prosecution was able to

prove that there had been a life-long pattern of abusive behavior. on april 28th, 1989, tanya thaxton reid was found guilty of felony child endangerment in the case of her son, michael. she was sentenced to ten years in prison. not long afterwards, tanya reid was indicted in texas for the murder of her daughter, morgan. >> somehow, tanya reid had become overly aggressive with morgan and we felt that possibly what had happened here was that in an effort to block morgan's air, she may have gone too far and she could not get the child to start breathing. in desperation, frustration, picked morgan up and shook her violently to start her breathing again. and that, in turn, caused the

subdural hematoma. >> on december 13th, 1993, the texas jury found tanya thaxton guilty of murder and she was sentenced to 62 years in prison. the verdict was upheld on appeal. despite the convictions, tonya reid continues to maintain her innocence. >> yes, always will. i'll maintain it forever. >> most deny, and they deny it in the face of evidence. you could show videotape if you had the type of munchausen syndrome by proxy where there was some act you could capture on film. if you showed it to them they would typically deny that's going on. >> ray and tanya reid are now divorced. ray remarried. michael and his older sister, carolyn, both live with their father and his new wife. tanya reid is eligible for

parole in 2009. >> it disturbs me that she is probably going to go through life denying what she did, even though the court in iowa has convicted her of child abuse. two juries here in texas have convicted her of murder, and, you know, her son was taken from her and never had another episode. it's a strange syndrome where someone just will never admit what they've done. >> she was offered a deal where she could have served maybe eight or ten years if she just admitted that she had done this and she chose not to do that. this is the price she's paying. she will sit there every day for 50 or 60 years or whatever good behavior she gets and she will remember it. and you know that she knows she did it. did it. she killed her baby. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com

early monday morning on october 19, 1992, 23-year-old laura houghteling was seen darryn and darly routier were a couple in their mid 20s with three children. darryn routier was