Microwave Injuries and Murders

Microwave ovens were invented in 1945, changing the way families prepared meals. Sadly, a few people have used the appliance for purposes far more devious than cooking. Most disturbingly, people have seriously injured and killed their infants and toddlers inside microwaves. Hearing a story about a child being murdered is always hard, but some stories are worse than others. Prepare yourself before proceeding, since this blog looks at a few of the horrifically heartbreaking cases of microwaves used as weapons against little ones.

Mother Gets Five Years for Newborn Microwave Murder

In September 1999, a Virginia mother put her newborn son in a microwave and turned on the device. The newborn died, and she was sentenced to only five years behind bars.

Elizabeth Renee Otte was 20 years old at the time. She claimed that she had no recollection of placing her baby in the microwave on the evening of September 23, 1999, after suffering a seizure. The judge in the case divided that it could’ve been “an absolute, complete, and tragic accident.”

The newborn died from thermal injuries after being left in the microwave for at least 10 minutes.

Because Otte suffered from epilepsy, her defense team suggested that she had a seizure that day, leaving her confused and accidentally placing the baby in the microwave oven when she tried to feed him.

"I loved my son, I still love my son and I always will love my son," Otte said."I would never do something like this intentionally. . . . And I can honestly say I don't remember doing this, if I did this."

Dad Put Newborn Daughter in Microwave

The baby in this case survived luckily, although still suffered tremendously after his sperm donor placed him in the microwave.

Joshua Mauldin, from Galveston, Texas, was 20 years old at the time of the incident.

Upset because his wife didn’t love him, Mauldin placed his two-month-old daughter, Ava, inside the microwave for 10 to 20 seconds in 2007. The baby suffered second and third-degree burns and was forced to have a portion of one ear amputated.

Mauldin was also accused of punching the baby and putting her in a refrigerator and a hotel room safe. He claimed he suffered a “psychotic episode” before placing the baby in the microwave, although the jury did not buy the story.

Prosecutors asked for life in prison after the jury convicted Mauldin on the charge of felony injury to a child. They instead sentenced him to 25 years.

China Arnold Microwave Murder

Currently serving life without parole at Dayton Correctional Facility in Ohio, China Arnold placed her 28-day-old daughter, Paris Talley, into the microwave after she got into an argument with her boyfriend over Paris’s paternity. Outraged that her boyfriend could think Paris was not his child, Arnold angrily placed the infant inside the microwave and turned it on, leaving her inside for “longer than 2 minutes.”

Paris died minutes after she was removed from the microwave. Her cause of death was critical internal body temperature. In other words, her mother cooked her to death.

Woman Murdered Infant During Psychotic Episode

Ka Yang’s family said she had always wanted a baby girl. Prosecutors in her murder case say she placed her six-week-old daughter inside the microwave and “cooked” the infant after suffering a psychotic episode.

In 2011, Ka Yang, a Sacramento mother of four, left the baby inside the operating microwave for several minutes, causing second-and-third-degree burns sustained across her body. The baby girl died from her injuries.

Yang denied she intentionally hurt the little girl, instead claiming that she suffered a seizure, blacked out, and woke up with the baby lying next to a space heater.

Yang was sentenced to 26 years to life in prison.