In the fall of 2014, the life of Natalia Roberts, a 30-year-old woman and devoted single mother of three young daughters, was tragically cut short in what first appeared to be a home invasion. The truth, however, revealed a far more sinister and calculated plot born from deception. Natalia, who lived in LaFayette, Georgia, was a server at a local Sonic Drive-In and was described by loved ones as a kind and caring individual.
Her final days were filled with the joy of a new mother, having recently given birth to her third daughter, who was only three weeks old at the time of her death.
The series of events leading to her death began with an unexpected offer of kindness. A woman she had just met, 37-year-old Catherine Goins of Hixson, Tennessee, offered to give her free baby clothes. Excited by the prospect of receiving help for her newborn, Natalia told her own mother about the nice woman she had encountered. On September 19, 2014, Goins lured Natalia to a home on Smoketree Circle in Ringgold, a house that belonged to a former boyfriend of Goins. Natalia brought her three-week-old and three-year-old daughters with her. As she walked down a flight of stairs inside the home, Goins shot her in the back of the head with a. 380 caliber handgun.
Initially, Catherine Goins attempted to deceive law enforcement by claiming she had shot an intruder. She called the homeowner, who was at work, and made this false claim before fleeing the scene with Natalia's two children. After being persuaded to return to the house by the homeowner, she repeated the intruder story to the police. However, investigators soon unraveled her web of lies. The motive behind the brutal murder was Goins' desperate attempt to perpetuate a fake pregnancy. Her most recent boyfriend had left her after discovering she was not actually pregnant. In a twisted plan to win him back, Goins plotted to kill Natalia and claim her newborn baby as her own.
Following the investigation, Catherine Goins was arrested in Marion County, Tennessee, and extradited to Georgia. She was charged with a host of crimes, including malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault, and tampering with evidence. The community was left in shock by the cold-blooded nature of the crime, a sentiment echoed by Natalia's grieving family who now faced the task of raising her three orphaned daughters. In 2016, Catherine Goins pleaded guilty to the charges against her and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, bringing a legal conclusion to a senseless act of violence that took a mother from her children.
