On a tragic day, June 30, 1966, the life of four-year-old Michael Fisher, a White male, was cut short in Fairfield, Maine. His father, Carl Fisher, returned home from his job at the Maine Central Railroad car shop to a scene of unimaginable horror. He discovered his nine-month-old daughter, Natalie, drowned in the bathtub. The tragedy deepened as he then found the lifeless bodies of Michael and his six-year-old sister, Kathleen, tucked into their beds.
The children's mother, Constance
Fisher, was found in her own bed, unconscious from an overdose of pills in an apparent suicide attempt. This was not the first time tragedy had struck the Fisher family at the hands of Constance. In 1954, she had drowned three of her other children. Following that incident, she was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and spent several years in a mental institution before being released, tragically leading to the deaths of three more of her children in 1966.
Constance was charged with the murders of Michael, Kathleen, and Natalie. She pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. Following psychiatric evaluations, the court deemed her unfit to stand trial and she was committed to the Augusta State Hospital. In 1973, Constance escaped from the hospital. Her body was later found in the Kennebec River, her death ruled an accidental drowning.
