Baby sitter charged with infant suffocations arrested in Georgia

<p>Fifteen years after three infants died in her care, a baby sitter who now lives in Georgia faces murder charges.</p><p>Amy Lynn Scott, 36, is awaiting extradition to Arizona after a detective re-examined evidence in three separate deaths from the Phoenix area.</p><p>Scott was arrested Nov. 22 at her home in Columbus, Ga., where she also provided child care. Columbus police had no reports of children injured in her care.</p><p>The deaths of Zachary Mann, Shauna Cunnington and Jordan Whitmer happened over nine months in 1989. They were considered suspicious at the time but were ruled natural or unexplained because investigators didn't have a solid case against Scott.</p><p>"On the surface, there were no signs of foul play," said Sgt. Dan Masters, a Tempe police spokesman.</p><p>Scott went to church with the parents of all three infants and lived in the same neighborhood.</p><p>"There was no animosity in the relationship between the parents and caregiver," Masters said. "It was a mysterious death. At that time, there was nothing criminal we could establish."</p><p>Tempe police Detective Tom Magazzeni inherited the case from a retiring investigator about four years ago. Magazzeni went through hundreds of pages of expert testimony, evidence and convinced the medical examiner's office that the children were suffocated, Masters said.</p><p>The deaths were reclassified as homicides, and a grand jury indicted Scott on Nov. 18.</p><p>Her arrest came as a relief to brothers Al and Scott Reed, who were homicide detectives in Tempe and Scottsdale respectively. The Reed brothers investigated the original cases and retired from their respective police departments with a gnawing feeling of injustice.</p><p>"There was a measure of frustration at the time," Scott Reed said. "But we relied on the science of the time."</p><p>Since 1989, technology and knowledge about infant deaths have grown dramatically.</p><p>The medical examiner's office re-examined the autopsy reports and had further testing done on evidence that had been stored.</p><p>"It's another perfect example of how, over time, things can change with technology _ how things are looked at and investigated," said Sgt. Doug Dirren, a Scottsdale police spokesman.</p><p>Investigators haven't found a motive for the killings, and Scott denies any wrongdoing.</p><p>Several calls to a phone number listed under Scott's name had a busy signal on Wednesday.</p><p>"This is just a huge moment," Zachary's mother, said Jill Shumway, told The Arizona Republic. "It's a beginning of justice for me."</p><p>___</p><p>HASH(0x2864ccc)</p>

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