An Alaska woman will spend decades in prison for the suffocation deaths of her infant daughters, committed two years apart.
Stephany Elizabeth Bilecki, 30, pleaded guilty in July to two counts of second-degree murder in connection with the deaths of her 4-month-old and 13-month-old daughters.
On Monday, Bilecki received a sentence of 130 years in prison during a hearing in a Fairbanks courtroom, with 85 years of that sentence suspended. As a result, she will serve a total of 45 years behind bars.
“The mandatory minimum for both of those is in fact 20 years because this was her child in each case,” Prosecutor Elizabeth Crail said of the plea agreement.
In return for her guilty plea, prosecutors dismissed two other second-degree murder charges and two first-degree murder charges against her.
In September 2015, Bilecki called her boyfriend and mother and said that her 4-month-old daughter, Chyanne, was dead, as detailed in a press release from prosecutors. Shortly before her mother arrived, she placed a 911 call.
Initially considered a case of sudden infant death syndrome due to the girl’s overall health, an investigation later found that Chyanne’s death resulted from injuries indicative of strangulation.
Two years later, Bilecki killed another child, KTVF reports.
In November 2017, while her husband was deployed, Bilecki attempted to reach him but ended up calling her in-laws, according to Law&Crime. She informed them that her 13-month-old daughter, Jasmine, was not breathing. She called 911 just before the girl’s grandparents arrived.
This time, however, investigators launched a more in-depth inquiry that revealed crucial evidence of the crime.
In the hours before her phone calls, Bilecki searched her cell phone for terms like “ways to suffocate,” “how to kill a human without leaving evidence,” “drugs that can kill without a trace,” “can drowning be detected in an autopsy,” and “16 steps to kill someone without getting caught.”
In 2108, she was charged with both murders.
“Just think about a mother killing both her children over two years, completely isolated events, and what that means, and what happens sometimes in our community, and sometimes just the evil that exists, that’s out there,” then-Fairbanks Police Department Chief Eric Jewkes said at the time.
[Feature Photo via Fairbanks PD]
