On a summer day in 1966, a horrifying discovery was made in a quiet Maine home. Nine-month-old female, Natalie Fisher, was found dead on June 30th of that year. Her father, Carl Fisher, returned home from his job at the Maine Central Railroad to find young Natalie drowned in the bathtub. In a state of shock, he ran to a neighbor's house to call the police, as his own home did not have a telephone.
The tragedy deepened when authorities arrived at the Fisher residence.
Upon examining the scene, they found the bodies of Natalie's older siblings, Michael, 4, and Kathleen, 6, 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 Constance had harmed her children. In 1954, she had drowned three of her other children, Richard, 6, Daniel, 4, and an 11-month-old baby. After that incident, she was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and committed to a mental institution, only to be released several years later.
Constance was arrested and charged with the murders of Kathleen, Michael, and Natalie. During her trial, she pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. After a psychiatric evaluation, she was once again deemed unfit to stand trial and was recommitted to the Augusta State Hospital. In October of 1973, Constance managed to escape from the hospital. Her body was later found in the Kennebec River near Gardiner. Her death was ruled an accidental drowning that likely occurred on the day she escaped.
