The Fairbanks Police Department indicted 23-year-old Stephany LaFountain on two counts of murder on Aug. 30 after forensic analysis revealed the mother had made disturbing searches online just an hour before reporting her second daughter as unresponsive to emergency services.
In November 2017, LaFountain was found to have searched for phrases such as, “how to commit the perfect murder,” “ways to kill human with no proof,” and “can drowning show in an autopsy report.”
LaFountain had called Fairbanks Emergency Communications Center at 6:24 p.m. to report that her baby was not breathing. She also contacted her husband’s family who quickly arrived and started CPR.
“During that time, attempts were made to contact the child’s father who was deployed,” police said in a press release.
The child was transferred to the hospital and her father soon came home on emergency leave. The little girl died four days later.
Upon investigation, police were shocked by the similarities of this case to LaFountain’s loss of a 4-month-old infant in September 2015, fueling “thousands of hours” of further investigations over the next nine months, Chief Jewkes said.
“When you investigate a case like this, it’s not just paperwork that you type—you live this case. You share in the grieving, you share in the pain, you share in all of the processes that go along with these cases. It takes a toll, and it’s hard emotionally,” he said.
Autopsy results showed both children showed symptoms consistent with suffocation but were otherwise “entirely healthy.”
LaFountain’s bail has been set at $2 million.
The father hurried home to see his little girl in the hospital, and he made the difficult decision to turn off life support after he learned she would not make it.
“She passed away in his arms, near his heart with the sound of his voice,” the website stated.
