Blackstone police said Murray was the mother of the two oldest children removed from the home last month, but no birth records existed for the two youngest. Police were following up on the case of reckless endangerment when they found the body of a dead infant in a closet on Wednesday, and the remains of what appeared to be two other newborns on Thursday.
The following is a report by the Boston Globe of Erika Murray’s double life on social media.
Erika Murray appears to have led a double life as a mom. She presented herself on her Facebook page as a cheerful mother of two school-age children focusing on “back to school” buys, while allegedly hiding the existence of two ailing younger children — and the deaths of three infants in her home.
Murray apparently began revealing her secret alternate universe about two weeks ago, when the state’s child protection agency took custody of four of her children after receiving a complaint about a crying child in her Blackstone home and discovering a squalid, vermin-infested residence, according to a state investigator who has been briefed on the case.
Murray allegedly told investigators that she primarily occupied the main floors of the house, while the children’s father occupied the basement. She told investigators she was the mother of four children — a 13-year-old girl, a 10-year-old boy, a 3-year-old girl and a 5-month-old girl — but she had kept secret the existence of the youngest two.
The father apparently thought he was a parent only to two children, and was upset to learn recently that he may have had two younger children as well, the investigator said.
Those two younger children have been receiving medical treatment since being taken into state custody. They show the effects of profound neglect and isolation. The 3-year-old, with poor muscle tone, apparently cannot walk and makes few sounds, and the baby shows signs of an infant who is not used to seeing sunlight, according to the investigator.
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.
It remained unclear if she ever told the state about the three dead infants, or if their bodies were discovered independently by investigators.
The two older children, who apparently attended school in the area, are living with their paternal grandparents now. On her Facebook page, Murray posted frequently about meals she had cooked, new clothes she had bought for the children, and their recent Halloween costumes.
On Aug. 23, just days before her children were taken into custody, Murray wrote, “It was a good day. We got everything the kids needed for back to school…. Going to lay down and relax!”
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