HUNTSVILLE, Ala., July 11 -- An Alabama woman waits in a jail cell for her arraignment after a grand jury indicted her this week for murder in the fiery deaths of her three young children. The case is being compared with the Susan Smith incident in South Carolina three years ago, when Smith purposely drowned her two sons because she felt they were an obstacle to her romance with son of the plant owner for whom she worked.
Authorities say Heather McGill Tipton, of Toney, Ala., set fire to her trailer home March 23 while her children were inside because her boyfriend did not want to marry a woman with a ready-made family. The bodies of daughters, Jordan and Corey Tipton, and son, Colby Gaskin, were found huddled in a bedroom of the mobile home. Investigators say they found traces of lighter fluid throughout the room where the children died. Tipton was arrested Thursday and charged with three counts of murder and one count of arson after the indictment was issued. Prosecutors are saying little about the case publicly, but neighbors who originally thought the fire was accidental are outraged. Kathy McGrath says she and her husband risked their lives to save the children, adding, 'This is just too much. That burned out shell sits there every day as a reminder of the hell those children went through.' McGill makes her first court appearance today, but is being denied bail because it is a capital murder case. She's being held in an isolation cell at the Madison County Jail in Huntsville. ---
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