Notorious Child Killer Marybeth Tinning Is Back Home in N.Y. Decades Later — and Is 'Laying Low'

Marybeth Tinning was released from prison in August after serving 31 years for murdering her 4-month-old daughter

Marybeth Tinning Being Led to Bail Hearing
Photo: Bettmann Archive/Getty Images

Notorious child killer Marybeth Tinning’s unspeakable crimes drew international attention and outrage — and so did her early parole release in August.

But in the months since the 75-year-old has left prison, Tinning — who was convicted of killing her baby daughter and is suspected of killing many of her other children — has appeared to be living a quiet life back in her home area of upstate New York.

“It seems that she’s been laying low,” Dorothy Posluszny, her former neighbor in Schenectady, tells PEOPLE.

The one-time waitress and school bus driver was convicted in 1987 of killing her 4-month-old daughter, Tami Lynne, by smothering her — and is suspected in 7 of her 8 other children’s deaths.

Sentenced to 20 years to life in prison, Tinning told the New York State Parole Board during one of her hearings, “I just – I don’t think I had the capabilities of being a good mother at all.”

marybethtinning
New York State Department Of Correction And Community Supervision

During her 31 years behind bars, she went before the parole board 6 times.

On her seventh try, in July, she was finally granted parole and was released from the Taconic Correctional Facility in Bedford Hills, New York, on Aug. 21.

While a DOC spokesperson would only say that Tinning now lives in Schenectady County, she is believed to have returned to the home she shared with her husband, Joseph Tinning, in Delanson before her incarceration.

According to the Times-Union of Albany, Tinning was once suspected of trying to poison Joseph but was never charged.

(PEOPLE’s calls for comment to Joseph and Marybeth Tinning were not returned.)

Though she is no longer in prison, she still has rules to follow, at risk of finding herself back behind bars.

Under the terms of her release, she will remain under the supervision of a parole officer for the rest of her life, according to the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision.

She also has a curfew and must participate in domestic violence counseling.

Tinning was “very emotional” when she told her husband in July that she was finally coming home, he told The DailyGazette.

Others weren’t so happy to learn she was being released back into society.

Schenectady County District Attorney Robert Carney has opposed her release even though he didn’t prosecute the case. He has told PEOPLE he doesn’t think she showed true remorse for the murder, citing her inconsistent accounts in appearances before the parole board.

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Tinning initially told the board that she didn’t remember how Tami Lynne died but then later admitted to the crime, says Carney. Still, she maintained that she didn’t kill any of her other children — even though she had confessed to killing her newborn son, Timothy, in 1973, and her 5-month-old son, Nathan, in 1975.

“The problem I have is that she showed absolutely no insight into her behavior or acknowledged in any way what she did,” said Carney.

“I can’t believe you can say she is rehabilitated when she refuses to admit the true extent of her conduct,” he added.

“It’s ridiculous to let someone out that has done that to children,” New York State senator Jim Tedisco, who vocally opposed Tinning’s release, told PEOPLE before her release.

“I am definitely outraged, but also sad and fearful.”

Audrey Hotaling, who babysat for Tinning’s son Michael before the 2-year-old’s 1981 death, told PEOPLE previously that her first reaction to learning about the release was “I don’t want to see her face.”

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