Waneta Ethel (Nixon) Hoyt (May 13, 1946 – August 13, 1998[1]) was an American serial killer who was convicted of killing all five of her biological children.
She attended Newark Valley High School, when she was in 10th grade, but dropped out, to marry Tim Hoyt on 11 January 1964.
In 1994, Hoyt confessed to the deaths of her five children, was arrested, convicted as a murderer, and died in prison from cancer four years later in 1998.
[3] In 1985, a prosecutor in a neighboring county who had been dealing with a murder case initially thought to involve SIDS, was told by one of his experts, Dr. Linda Norton, a forensic pathologist from Dallas, Texas, that there may be a serial killer in his area of New York.
[7] It has been speculated since her conviction that Hoyt suffered from Münchausen syndrome by proxy, a diagnosis that is not universally accepted in the psychiatric community.