Francisca Ballesteros

Francisca Ballesteros (born 1969) is a Spanish woman who poisoned to death her first baby, a five month old daughter, in 1990. Fourteen years later, in 2004, she killed her husband and second daughter because she had met a man on the Internet and wanted to run away from her parenting and marriage to be with her new found lover. Ballesteros then tried to poison her twelve-year-old son, although he survived after eight months of recovery. Following her son's poisoning Spanish authorities finally arrested her. She was convicted on three counts of murder and one count of attempted murder and sentenced to eighty-four years in prison in 2005.[2]

Francisca Ballesteros
Born1969 (age 53–54)
Valencia, Spain
Other names
  • The Melilla Poisoner
  • The Poisoner of Melilla
  • Paqui Ballesteros[1]
Criminal statusIncarcerated
Conviction(s)Murder, Attempted murder
Criminal chargeMurder

Biography

Francisca Ballesteros was born in 1969 in Valencia. A few years later, she moved to Melilla.

After marrying Antonio González Barribino, Ballesteros gave birth to a daughter, who she named Florinda. In 1990, Ballesteros suffered from postpartum depression and wanted to end her marriage, but she finally decided against it. She instead decided to kill her family and flee to Valencia. Ballesteros poisoned Florinda, who was only five months old, with Colme, a drug used to treat alcoholism. After the death of the baby, Ballesteros decided to wait to kill the rest of her family.[3]

In 2004, 14 years after murdering her daughter, Ballesteros, who had met many men through the Internet, decided to kill the rest of her family, flee to the city where one of the men that she had met online was living, and marry him.[4][5]

On 12 January 2004 Ballesteros killed her husband Antonio González Barribino with Colme and with the sedatives Zolpidem and Bromazepam. On 4 June 2004, Ballesteros killed her daughter Sandra with the same medications and attempted to kill her 12-year-old son Antonio, who was admitted to the hospital with poisoning on 4 June 2004. The autopsy of her daughter Sandra revealed that she had been poisoned.[6][7]

On 7 June 2004 Ballesteros was arrested and confessed to the murders.

On 26 September 2005 Francisca Ballesteros was sentenced to a term of 84 years in prison.[8]

See also

References
  1. MALVAR, ANIBAL (13 June 2004). "Paqui, retrato de una asesina". El Mundo (in Spanish). No. 452. Madrid, Spain: Mundinteractivos, SA. Retrieved 13 April 2018. SUCCESS / THE MELILLA POISONER Paqui, portrait of a murderer
  2. "25 Most Monstrous Serial Killers Of Children In History". List25. 3 November 2014. Retrieved 13 April 2018.
  3. La fiscal eleva la pena para la 'envenenadora de Melilla' a 84 años (in Spanish)
  4. "Killer: Francisca Ballesteros - The Black Widow of Valencia Profiled on Killer.Cloud". Killer.Cloud. Retrieved 10 February 2018.
  5. "El amante de la presunta envenenadora de Melilla dice que planearon casarse antes de morir el marido". ABC España (in Spanish). Madrid, Spain. 26 September 2005. Retrieved 13 April 2018.
  6. Condenada a 84 años de prisión la "envenenadora de Melilla" (in Spanish)
  7. "Según el informe psiquiátrico" (in Spanish). Telefónica de España, S.A.U. 22 September 2005. Archived from the original on 9 September 2007. Retrieved 13 April 2018.
  8. LA ENVENENADORA DE MELILLA (in Spanish) Archived 2008-02-12 at the Wayback Machine
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