The worst nightmare a parent can encounter is the death of a child, but what if that child was murdered, by a sibling? How can anyone make sense of such a tragedy?
Siblicide is a category of murder that is underreported, often because it is unfathomable that siblings can attack each other so violently and impulsively that it culminates in murder. Even more rare is when both the perpetrator and victim are juvenile girls. The term for killing one’s sister is sororicide.
Historically, Cleopatra VII, Queen of Egypt had her older sister and political rival Arsinoë killed. Arsinoë was 15 when she challenged Julius Caesar’s occupation of Egypt. She fled to the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus to claim sanctuary but was killed on the steps of the temple in 41 BC by Ceasar’s successor Mark Anthony at the behest of Cleopatra. In Greek mythology the Amazon Queen Penthesilea, daughter of Ares and Otrera, accidently killed her sister Hippolyta in a hunting accident.
Research indicates siblicide is still noted to be one of the most rare forms of family homicide, at an average rate of around 2 percent of all interfamilial homicides in the United States. Available global statistics do not vary much – it remains a rare phenomenon and even at this small percentage, when the perpetrator is a girl, it is even more rare.
When alcohol or drug abuse, mental illness, inheritance issues and cultural related accusations such as witchcraft or honour are eliminated, what would motivate a sister to kill her sister? Again the answer may be deeply subconscious, and could pertain to a primal threat of existence, that has been repressed, to suddenly erupt in a seemingly impulsive murderous act.
In 1941 David Levy coined the term “sibling rivalry” postulating that an older sibling’s aggressive response to the newcomer is so typical, that it is safe to say it is a common feature of family life. Yet before that, sibling rivalry, jealousy and the death wish of a sibling were themes explored by contemporary Austrian psychotherapists Sigmund Freud, father of Psychoanalysis and Alfred Adler, father of Individual Psychology. Both Freud and Adler acknowledged firstborns felt “dethroned” with the arrival of younger siblings, resulting in a constant power struggle, centring around the eldest child, fighting to protect their superior position against usurping younger siblings. Adler accentuated birth order as an important role player in the formation of personality.
Dr Juliet Mitchel, a Fellow of the British Academy and Emeritus Professor at the University of Cambridge, a recognised expert on the psychoanalysis of siblings explains when a new baby arrives, the older sibling simultaneously loves and hate the newcomer. It experiences the new baby as an extension of the self – and develops a narcissistic love for it, yet the new baby also “steals” the mother’s love and replaces the older child, and therefore the older one feels annihilated by its arrival, causing it to hate the new baby. Hate is an ego response of self-preservation. Sibling rivalry is therefore rooted in an existential threat to the ego.
Stephen Pinker in his 2011-book The Better Angels of our Nature says: Babies do not kill each other, because we do not give them access to knives and guns. ‘The Law of the Mother’ pertains to her intervening and preventing them from killing each other and is “an absolute prohibition with the threat that the mother will withdraw her care and protection if it is breached,” says Mitchel.
Due to the Law of Mother, preventing murder, the sibling hate turns into sibling rivalry – a more socially accepted version. However sibling rivalry can escalate to sibling aggression, which is often normalized by parents and even regarded as character building. Normalization of physical violence among siblings has a damaging and lasting effect and is reportedly linked to anxiety and depression.
In Child and Youth Misbehaviour in South Africa (2024) edited by Dr Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Brenda Beukman refers to multi-assaultive families, presenting continuous intrafamilial physical aggression: Spouses hit each other, siblings hit each other, patents hit children and children hit their parents. These family members are violent and antisocial across a variety of settings.
Various authors have noted that the term ‘sibling’ may not exclusively refer to a biological sibling but can also extent to half- or step siblings, cousins and even others perceived as siblings, as illustrated by historical case studies.
On 20 December 1786, 12-year-old Hannah Ocuish an African- Pequot Native American girl with an intellectual disability, was hanged for the murder of six-year-old Eunice Bolles, in New London, Connecticut. The motive for the murder appeared to be revenge. Earlier Eunice had disclosed that Hannah had stolen strawberries, although there is no record that Hannah was ever admonished for this theft. Could there have been a deeper hidden motivation?
Hannah was the daughter of a native American woman – “given to drunkenness”. It was reported by Henry Channing, a minister, that already at the age of six, Hannah and her eight-year-old brother had physically assaulted a little girl and robbed her of her clothes and a gold necklace. Her mother then took Hannah away and found her employment as a servant in the household of a widow. She worked there for six years.
On the morning of 21July, 1786, six-year-old Eunice Bolles’ body was discovered in the public road leading from New-London to Norwich. She had a fractured skull, bruises on her arms and face, and she was strangled. Rocks were placed on her body, to create the appearance that the stone wall had collapsed on her. A search for culprits was immediately launched. Hannah attempted to deflect the investigation by conjuring up a story that she had seen four boys fleeing from the scene. However, after being arrested and confronted with the body in Eunice’s home, she confessed to killing Eunice. She admitted she was angry at Eunice for divulging that she had stolen strawberries during the harvest. Upon spotting Eunice on her way to school that morning, she lured her away with a promise of calico and then beat her with stones and strangling her. She admitted to placing rocks on top of the body at the crime scene to stage an accident.
Although Hannah was described as intellectually challenged, the act of trying to implicate four other boys and the act of staging the crime scene as an accident shows culpability and criminal intent. Under the state of law at that time, age and disability were not mitigating factors. A reporter at the time wrote, “the age of a criminal was considered inconsequential; swift and relentless punishment was viewed as the only practicable method of keeping the lawless element in check.” There is much discourse and debate about whether Hannah was guilty or not and the fairness of her trial.
Although there is no record that Hannah faced any consequences for stealing strawberries a deeper insight into motive may be that she viewed Eunice as a younger “sibling” – more privileged due to race and social status, who was about to have her annihilated due to the disclosure of the theft. The rivalry spilled over into violent aggression, culminating in murder, which she tried to cover up.
Half a century later on 14 May 1837, 13-or-14-year old Mary, an enslaved girl, killed Vienna Brinker, the two-year old daughter of John Brinker at the Snelson-Brinker House, a single-story log cabin near Steelville, Missouri.
Mary had been sent to collect firewood and took her charge, little Vienna along. Vienna’s body was discovered in the river close to the homestead. Under threat of being whipped, Mary confessed to throwing Vienna into the river and beating her body to prevent it from surfacing. The motive for the crime is unknown, but it may have been lurking in Mary’s subconscious.
It was speculated, though never confirmed, that Mary might have been fathered by John’s father Abraham Brinker – who had been killed by Native Americans. Mary was initially born a free person and then owned by Abraham Brinker. John inherited his father’s slaves. For two years Mary was the only ‘daughter’ in the house, albeit of ‘slavery status’, until Viena was born. It was speculated that John may have had plans to sell Mary. Did Mary resent two-year-old Vienna her legitimacy and liberty to such an extent that she killed her for she threatened Mary’s existence and place within the family?
Despite several trials, Mary was found guilty and became the youngest person to be hanged in Missouri.
In October 2024, a 13-year-old girl in Michigan, America was arrested for stabbing her seven-year-old sister in the abdomen, head and neck with a butcher’s knife and a hunting knife to death over an argument about flushing a toilet. Following the murder, she called 911. The girls’ parents had left them alone for about two hours. In a scenario of a crime scene analysis, it seems the perpetrator collected both knives and waited for her sister to enter the bathroom before attacking her. This indicates wilfulness and intent – not a spontaneous action. Prosecutor Kim Worthy decided to keep her in the juvenile system: “Given her young age, the State would have seven years to diagnose, treat, and rehabilitate her until her mandatory release at age 21. Hopefully then she would not be a danger to others. While this is a difficult decision given these facts, it is the right thing to do in this case.”
Cain killing Abel set the scene for one of humankind’s most horrendous acts.
Top image: The Child Murderess by Eyolf Soot (1895) (Public Domain)
Book: Christiaan Bezuidenhout (Ed)(2024) Child and Youth Misbehaviour in South Africa. Van Schaik.