[1][2] Between August 2016 and November 2017, they lived at an address in Willenhall near Walsall, where the landlady spent "more and more time" caring for the children as Porton socialised instead of looking after them.
[3] Porton claimed to be a model and spent a large amount of time on dating apps and offering men sexual services for money.
[1][3][5][6] Her symptoms were consistent with deliberate airway obstruction, but doctors at the time did not consider this suspicious and believed that her condition arose from a chest infection.
[1][4] Porton had called 111, the non-emergency NHS line, reporting that her daughter was unwell, yet despite claiming she thought the condition "did not seem urgent", the toddler was found dead and "completely lifeless" by the time paramedics arrived 9 minutes later.
[6] Suspicion soon fell on Porton, and police then discovered that she had made a series of incriminating internet searches throughout the month of January that indicated she had killed her children and attempted to cover it up.
[1] It was found that she had searched about death, breathing, and drowning when she had originally admitted Lexi to hospital on 2 and 4 January, and also researched how long it took for bodies to go "cold up to the shoulder".
[3][6] After Lexi was then successfully treated and discharged, Porton searched "can you actually die if you have a blocked nose and cover your mouth with tape" and "how long after drowning can someone be resuscitated?".
[2] The conviction of Porton received significant press coverage both in the UK[1][3][4] and abroad,[7][8][9] the media noting her callousness in killing her children only because of her sex life.
[10] In February 2020, there was renewed media interest in Porton's case after her mother, who had reportedly been "tormented" over the deaths of her grandchildren and had disowned her daughter, was found dead.
[11][12] Porton's case was featured in a January 2021 book by Richard Taylor, titled The Mind of a Murderer: A Glimpse Into the Darkest Corners of the Human Psyche, from a Leading Forensic Psychiatrist.
[14] Also in May 2022, Porton was the subject of an article in the Journal of Concurrent Disorders, titled Analysing the discursive psychology used within digital media to influence public opinions concerning female child-killers.