The Suspish Sitter- Helen Patricia Moore
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- Hi friends, how are you today? I hope you're having a wonderful day so far. My name is Bailey Sarian and today is Monday, which means it's Murder, Mystery, and Makeup Monday. If you're new here, hi! My name is Bailey Sarian and on Mondays I sit down and I talk about a true crime story that's been heavy on my noggin and...

I do my makeup at the same time. If you're interested in true crime and you like makeup, I would highly suggest you hit that subscribe button. Okay, so today's story, let's talk about it, takes place in Sydney, Australia. Oh God, I don't know what's going on with Australia. Actually, I do, 'cause I was gonna do a dark history episode on it, but I don't want Australia to be mad at me.

Today's story is unfortunate. You know, like what do you do? You want kids, you have kids, but what if your kids suck and kill people? Then what? You know? So today's story, it takes place in the late 1970s, in the early 80s, in a suburb of Sydney, Australia. This place is called Claymore. Now, honestly,

It seems like Australia kind of low-key hates Claymore because like if you Google this place to get information about there, I mean even their Wikipedia says that Claymore is a place of hopelessness for young people. So...

That's where our story takes place. You should Google it. It's like, oh, everybody seems to really hate this place. Okay. So in 1979, Claymore was like a pretty largely unknown remote kind of suburb. It's a brand new community. Apparently the housing in this community were really, really bad because first of all, it wasn't heavily funded. And second of all, they had built these houses like really quickly because this area was growing so fast.

People were moving in. They were arriving and there was nowhere to live. So they were just building shit real quick, like using tape, you know, glue.

Stuff like that. So because this community was newer and things were still growing, things weren't well established. Like there weren't a lot of transportation options, if any. There was little to no employment opportunities. There was no like place to shop and not just like shop for clothes and stuff. I'm talking about like shop for groceries and whatnot.

I don't know why I felt like I needed to further expand on that. Anyways, no shopping. It's so hard. And the majority of the people living in this town, they would complain that there really wasn't a lot of privacy because everything was like built so close together and everyone's just jam-packed in there.

It was just like really crowded. People didn't start moving into Claymore until about 1978. So just a year before our story takes place. So what I'm essentially getting at is that the community is very new. New, okay, neighbors. They don't really know each other yet. They haven't had a chance to like meet.

Everyone was still in that get to know you phase or just get to know the neighbors, who is everybody. It's new, you get it? Great. And then on top of that, Claymore seemed to have a very high crime rate.

So there's just like a lot going on, right? And then the Department of Youth and Community Services, they were quoted as saying that many of the people living in Claymore led lonely, unhappy lives. Yeah. It's like no one has anything positive to say about this place, right? Okay. Anyways, so Claymore. This sad place is where our story takes place. And here is where we have a girl named Helen living with her mother. Her name's Jessie.

and her stepfather, John. She has two younger brothers. One is seven-year-old Peter, and the other one is two-year-old Andrew. So as far as anyone could see, like from the outside looking in, it's a pretty normal family, right? Like nothing strange, nothing looked off. Everyone looked happy. Helen, the daughter, she was super close with her younger brother, Andrew. Like,

really close. She loved taking care of him. The two bonded and she was like more of a mother, motherly figure for two-year-old Andrew. So just like every family, I mean, they had their issues. You know, when Helen was born, her mother, Jessie...

She like always had this feeling deep down that something wasn't right with Helen, you know? She said starting at 18 months, baby Helen was having a hard time communicating like other 18 months her age. 18 months her age, Bailey. Yeah, I said that. 18 months her age. But she was having a hard time communicating like the others around her age. And on top of that, Helen at 18 months seemed to be very self-destructive.

Oh yeah, self-destructive. And like Jessie, her mother noticed at a young age, like Helen was ripping and destroying a lot of like her dolls, her stuffed animals. She was chopping off heads. She was pulling off limbs. I mean, she was just destroying everything, everything, you know? Jessie was like, you know,

This is different. Mm-hmm, yeah. Jessie, Helen's mom, she thought that something was off with Helen since she was a baby. You know, like, something was just off.

And whenever Jesse would bring it up to other family members, they'd all like, no one believed her. No, they're like, shut up. It's just like, she's just a baby. Chill out. You're being weird. I mean, to everybody else, Helen was like, she was never difficult. She was only difficult when around her family, like at home. So no one else saw her being, you know,

like Jessie had claimed. And plus overall, Helen was like a really quiet kid. She didn't really talk much. She was super shy. She wasn't a bad student. She was actually pretty smart. She never got into drugs or drinking, never did anything really bad. You know, like a kid growing up would. For the most part, Jessie, Helen's mom, she just had like a deep down gut feeling. And like, you can't go up to someone and be like, "Hey, I have a feeling that she's not well.

You know, people need some kind of facts, evidence, you know? And then when Helen was at home, like around the family or whatever, just out of nowhere, she would have like just screaming, just screaming out of nowhere, intense behavior. She would start destroying everything. I mean, it was bad, according to Jessie. Have a question or need how-to advice? Just ask Meta AI.

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I guess there was this one time when Helen was playing a game. She was 13 at the time, and she was playing a game with her brother, some kind of card game, and she ended up losing, right? You can't win all the time, Helen.

But, you know, she ended up getting really upset to the point where she, like, attacked her brother and then pulled out a chunk of his hair and then, like, a chunk of his scalp. Like, girl, it's just a game of go fish. You know, what are you doing? Now, this definitely set off Helen's mom because, like, now Helen is...

hurting her other kids. She's like, you can tear your Barbies and stuffed animals arms off all you want, that's fine, but you are not gonna be attacking the other kids, you know? So at that moment, Jessie knew that she had to take Helen and go see a doctor.

Jesse ends up taking Helen to see a doctor and get like a psychological evaluation. But when Helen was seen by the doctor and given, you know, like a test or an evaluation, the doctor came back and said that she was a quote, perfect angel, which fine. I mean, I don't know. Like, can a doctor say that? A perfect angel? I'm like, that's not a diagnosis.

Try again. The doctor said that there was, like, no signs of violent or destructive tendencies, that, you know, she was, like, perfect for her age. So by the end of the appointment, the doctor instead turns to Helen's mom and was like, girl, you're the problem. You're the one who's struggling with something and needs to be medicated. You're making up these wild stories about your poor child. She...

has been diagnosed as a perfect angel. So in the end, the doctor ends up prescribing Jesse Valium. Valium. Valium? You know, that medication. Like, yeah, so that happened. But I mean, God, that would probably make Jesse feel so...

Shitty. You know, like, because what if the doctor's right? What if you are just an asshole and like, oh no, like this is my kid and I'm acting like they're psycho or, you know? So she must be feeling all sorts of ways because this doctor gaslit her into thinking that, you know, she's the one who needs help.

Ugh, I just couldn't imagine. That must be like, that'd be a brain fog. So that is where our story pretty much begins. One, in a really much hated suburb, right? And two, Helen, something's off. Something's off.

but we don't know what. So the year is 1978 and Helen is now 16 years old. She's working at a local community center called the Claymore Information Service. When I looked it up, I don't know what it was. I think it's just like the community center. 'Cause, uh...

That's what I, that's all. Because I couldn't find out like what else was going on there, you know? It's kind of funny. It was called the information service, but I have no information for you. So Helen's mom, Jessie, said that one thing that always lifted Helen's mood or made her happy was her younger brother, Andrew. I mean, the two were very, very connected, right? Very close. She loved him. She spoiled him. Helen would babysit her younger brother from time to time and she was like really loving

realizing, you know, she's a teenager. She's like, you know what? I really like babysitting. I'm good at it. I like kids, you know, cool. So this gave Helen a really great idea. She's like, what if I...

start babysitting. Like I could, she's going to school, she's volunteering at the community center and she's like, okay, I could have like a side hustle where I babysit and I make some extra money and stuff. And like, I could hang out with kids. Cool. I'll be good at that. Now it worked out for her because the community center that she was volunteering at, they had like a local bulletin board. Remember this is before the internet.

So people would come in and they'd advertise their services on this bulletin board. Car wash, I don't know, just all kinds of different stuff. Car wash was the first one that came to my mind. And then also people would, you know, put up places for rent, stuff like that. You've seen them. It was just like a main hub, okay? It was a great place to get your business out there. So Helen decides to use this bulletin board to her advantage because she wants to start babysitting. So she's like, cool. You know, she uses the bulletin board to advertise herself. Babysitter, you know?

Perfect timing, the town still growing. Lots of people didn't have a connection, you know, to a babysitter, a local babysitter. So it was great. Like Helen was getting some work. But sadly, something really terrible happened in March of 1979. Helen's younger brother, the two-year-old Andrew, he passed away in his sleep. Yeah, sad. Were any freaking parents' worst nightmare? But how does a two-year-old pass away in his sleep, you know?

That's what I was thinking. Apparently, Helen did not take this well, which I think is easy to kind of imagine, right? I don't think anyone would take that well. Authorities determined that Andrew had died of cot death, which is now known as SIDS, or sudden infant death syndrome. Now, SIDS is very rare, which is why it was very rare

peculiar, very suspish that just two and a half months later on May 19th, 1979, another baby in town, it was like kind of nearby, wasn't far, okay? Another baby dies of SIDS. Like what are they?

This time it was a 16-month-old baby named Suzanne McIntosh, I believe. 16 months old. But then get this. Small world. Because 16-month-old Suzanne was Helen's cousin.

I guess it was babysitting the night baby Suzanne died. Helen? Yeah. So Helen was babysitting that night, and she had put little baby Suzanne to bed, right? Her parents came home. Suzanne's parents came home. They, like, peeked in the room, and they're like, oh, she's sleeping, you know? And then they called it a night. They went to bed. So no one, like, realized that this poor baby, she was dead until the next morning when she wouldn't wake up. Why?

Awful. Word eventually gets back to Helen's mom, Jessie, you know, that baby Suzanne had died and this tragic news. But the feeling that Jessie had gotten deep down in her gut was something that she said she couldn't shake. I don't know. It's just like it was too much of a coincidence. And Jessie's over here thinking like, okay, look, I keep trying to suppress my feelings, my instincts about my own daughter. And then this happens, this little coincidence. I just should...

go and talk to her. So Jessie does just that. She decides she's going to go to her daughter and just confront her. Just ask. Maybe she'll tell her the truth. "Hey, you killed those babies?" "Yeah, mom." "All right." You know, like, I don't know what she expects, but maybe she'll get something. So Jessie goes up to Helen and is like, "Hey, did you have anything to do with those deaths?" You know, I guess this, you know, was very upsetting to Helen and she started screaming and just going a little,

hysterical, kicking, screaming. You know, it was very extreme, over the top, yelling at her mom that she didn't do it. And this must've been convincing enough because Jessie, like, didn't want to push any further. So she's like, I don't know what Helen's capable of. Like, you know? So Jessie was like, okay, I'll stop asking. I'm sorry I asked. And...

I'm not a mom, so I can't imagine how hard it would be to actually confront your own child about potentially killing someone. I mean, the fact that she even did that is very bold. Good for her. She has that gut feeling. She's listening to it, but...

No one's listening to her. And not only that, could you imagine how guilty you would probably feel for even thinking that your child is a murderer? And then like being wrong. What if you were wrong? And you're just like, "Wow, I'm just a fucking asshole. "That's what I am." Anywho, with nothing to go off of other than her gut feeling, Jessie just takes a step back and she's like, "Look, okay, fine. "Helen can keep babysitting. "It must've just been a crazy coincidence, "but okay, you know.

So Helen goes back to babysitting. So it wouldn't take long for things to go wrong again. You know what I'm saying? Like in January of 1980, there was a 12 month old baby. His name was Vaughn. And this baby was suffering from like a serious convulsion and like having seizures in his sleep. Just randomly this one night, 911 call comes in. Everyone's freaking out, right? He had a babysitter that night. Guess who was his babysitter? Helen.

Yeah, another weird coincidence going on. Now, luckily, Vaughn, the baby, survived, and experts informed them that, you know, the seizure he had was very rare. It was totally natural and, honestly, a very rare occurrence. They even called it a freak accident at one point. Like, what are they on to that?

But Jessie, once again, she's got that deep down gump feeling. She's like, come on, guy. Like, this is a third baby, okay? And Helen has been babysitting all of them, you know? Like, she has to be involved somehow. Something is going on. So Jessie decides that, you know, she's gonna confront Helen again. And of course...

That's not gonna go well. I mean, you know, I don't blame her because like she's like got really defensive. She knows she's blaming her mom for making these crazy allegations against her, her own daughter, that, you know? And her mom was just looking to blame her for something. She's like, "Shut up, mom, shut up." Just being a teenager. But then again, the other side of it's like, well, you know, who wouldn't get defensive if your mom is accusing you of murder? You know, like I think we would,

I kind of get defensive over that, some of us. I don't really know what Jessie was hoping for, like what kind of outcome she's hoping for. But you know, again, I give her props for listening to her gut, right? Like, God, that must be hard, poor thing. But Helen, deny, deny, deny.

She's like, "Ew, mom. How could you think that I'm killing babies? It's so messed up." After some time apart between the two and like after the silent treatment from her daughter, Jessie ends up going to her daughter Helen and she apologizes for thinking that, you know, she had anything to do with this. Like she's embarrassed and ashamed.

So Jessie, after this point, after she apologizes, she's like really thinking that she's been wrong this whole time and that something must be seriously wrong with her because she's over here just thinking that her daughter, her teenage daughter is a killer. Like she's feeling, she's just feeling guilty. Poor thing. So two weeks go by.

Two whole weeks, Helen's babysitting another baby. And this baby, or this child, because I don't think it was a baby, I think it was a child, has a mysterious seizure. On February 1st, 1980, Helen had babysat a two-year-old boy named Aaron Crocker. And he ended up having, or she ended up having to call the ambulance that night because I guess while he was sleeping.

she noticed that Aaron wasn't breathing at all. So she calls the ambulance. Two-year-old Aaron would end up being in a coma for two weeks, just staying in a hospital. And then he would end up having to stay in the hospital for like up to six weeks. And then when he got out of the coma, poor Aaron, he was blind and unable to walk.

And this would cause him so many issues later on in life that he would actually die from complications that stemmed from this incident. Just like freaking awful. So February 24th, this is like two weeks later, Helen, once again, is babysitting another baby. I don't know why her mom is still letting her babysit babies, but...

Well, yeah I do because she thinks she's wrong. Bailey, shut up. Helen's babysitting another baby. This baby dies of a crib death. There's a poor little two year old girl named Rachel. She was found just dead in her crib. Just doesn't stop. Now I know, I know, you're at home thinking, Bailey, how could no one have put this together? How is nobody like solving mysteries out there in Claymore, okay? She's being very messy and

I don't know. It just went under the radar because this community was brand new and things changed.

were really not running very smoothly. There was lots of new families moving in and no one within the communities were talking with one another. It was just kind of, everyone stuck to themselves, you know? So there was no word of mouth happening. Like, "Hey, you know what's weird? Helen was babysitting my kid too." You know what I'm saying? If only they would talk to their neighbors. And the only person who was like putting the pieces together was given medication and told that she was, you know,

Delusional. So, yeah, things are not going that great. But...

Because there's always a but. There was a turning point. You see, while Jessie had always suspected that her daughter Helen was responsible for all of these attacks, it wasn't until one particular attack that she knew, well she said she knew for sure, okay? And that's when her seven-year-old son, Helen's half-brother, he died while in Helen's care. So she's like, "Oh yeah, I, it's Helen."

So on March 31st, 1980, Helen's mother, Jessie, left her children home alone with Helen, she's in charge, to babysit. Now during this time is when Helen attacked her seven-year-old brother,

his name's Peter, by the way. And at seven, you know, Peter's not a baby. So he tried his best to fight her off. He's seven, but his sister, still much stronger. The exact details are a little unclear, but what we do know for sure is that the police were called and Jessie goes to the police when they show up. And she says, Helen is the one who was responsible. Like she just like didn't even, she had no proof, but she's like, Helen did it.

And she was just tired of covering for her. Jessie was done. It was her daughter. She knew it. She knew it. So once Helen was arrested, she started blabbing away. She had some stories to tell. Not only did she confess to murdering her half-brother, Peter, but also she confesses to the deaths of Suzanne and Rachel, as well as the attack on baby Vaughn and Aaron. Both of them survived. Well, Aaron, you know.

But she confessed. For everything. While Helen is in police custody on March 31st and April 1st, Helen details all the attacks. In the case of Peter, Helen claimed that she simply just walked up behind him while he was watching television, and then she put her hands over his nose and his mouth, just trying to suffocate him.

for shits and giggles, I guess. I guess he actually broke free and then tried to run to the front door, but she caught up with him. And then Helen, she held Peter down and she suffocated him until he was dead. Yeah. And then, because she's even more fucked up, she threw his body down the stairs. And then she took a shower, 'cause she wanted to get nice and clean, before actually calling the police. I don't know.

I don't know. People are gross, man. Like that's a different kind of fucked up. And she's a kid. Yeah, that's not good. Well, Helen was telling police like her preferred way of attack was the hand over nose and mouth move. Like this is what she did with all of them. In the case of 16 month old Suzanne, Helen, I mean, she told police that she suffocated her. She did the whole hand over mouth.

over mouth situation, hand over mouth and nose situation. And according to Helen, the little girl didn't struggle much. "Yeah, Helen, 'cause she's a baby." She's like, "Yeah, she didn't struggle much." "Really, Helen?" She said once she thought he was dead, she went right back to watching her television programs. Like nothing had happened. She was actually surprised because he started crying a bit later. So that's when she kind of panicked and like called the ambulance. She was like, "Oh, shit."

So she did the same thing with the other baby, Aaron. He ends up surviving, quote unquote. Not really, because it's like he lived a rough life after the fact. But yeah, I guess she didn't actually fully kill them. And then they would wake up and start crying. And then she would panic and be like, I don't know. And then call the ambulance. She told the police that was her thing.

Yeah, this is her thing. If her victim survived, she called the ambulance. We all have a thing, you know, like some people don't walk underneath a ladder or something like that, you know? But with Helen over here, her thing was calling the ambulance if one of her victims survived.

It's different. Now many, especially the police, they thought that was pretty odd actually that she called the police. It's very unlike a killer, but then again, Helen is still young and I don't know. Anyways, they just thought it was odd. It was a good thing, but it was odd that she didn't fully try to kill them because most killers would do that. They would go back and, 'cause they don't want any survivors. So yeah, that was noted.

Noted. After Peter's death, that made Helen's death toll three with two attempted murders. When Helen was asked, you know, like, why would you do this? Especially to like your son. Not your son, I'm sorry. Your brother. She said her only reason for committing the offenses was that she just...

"felt like it. "She was bored." Girl, that's not a good answer. Just based on that answer alone, they should never let her out of jail. So the trial. Helen's trial started on May 19th, and initially she was being charged with three murders. Now she would end up being a denied bail for the protection of the community, which I think was probably a great call.

The trial itself, it lasted like five days. During the trial, Helen actually took the stand and made a statement. Yeah. Helen spoke to the court and gave a brief statement saying that she was really sorry about what had happened. She said, I don't know why I did those things. I love children. I always have children.

I love looking after them. And then she ended it with saying like, "I don't know what happened to make me do these things." Which, okay, is fair, you know, whatever. She told the court that life began to go wrong for her after her brother Andrew had died. Like everything in her life just went downhill and wrong. And all she wanted was a cure, but she had no cure. She also said,

that after seeing her brother die, she didn't see or understand why other children got to live. So out of that, like she first killed Suzanne, her first baby, the first baby. But then plot twist, during the trial, Helen would be charged with yet another murder.

Helen was now being charged in the death of her two year old brother, Andrew. Oh shit. They were super close. He, doctor said he passed away from SIDS. And remember in the beginning I said like SIDS is super rare. Most cases occur in babies under the age of six months and the age range where like there's most risk when it comes to SIDS is two to four months.

Now these kids were no younger than 16 months and it's understood now that the risk of SIDS is almost zero by age one. So Andrew being two years old at his time of the death, it was just a little odd that he would die of this, you know? So was her brother Andrew her first kill or was he her reason for killing?

Now that seemed like the answer. I mean, the question. Am I okay? During the trial, Helen's defense called a psychologist and psychiatrist.

to the stand and they told the court that the test they conducted on Helen suggested that she was borderline schizophrenic who was sometimes unsure of reality and did not know what she was doing. Plus she had hallucinations. Another thing that came to light during the trial is that Helen had allegedly told the psychologist that she had been sexually interfered with by her uncle

And on top of that, he also attempted to rape her. Helen also said that this had occurred since the age of eight and it was happening like on a daily basis. Poor thing. Oh, and who was her uncle? Oh, plot even twist. Who was her uncle? William McIntosh or McIntosh? I think it's McIntosh. Suzanne's dad. Suzanne, her first victim. Her uncle. Suzanne was her cousin. So her uncle...

So did she kill because she was angry with her uncle? You know, she said her uncle William had continued molesting her until Suzanne died. And that was when her uncle stopped coming around. So like she solved the problem. The uncle denied the allegations, but Helen's lawyer insisted at the trial that like there was at least one incident when Helen was 15. There were other doctors that were

were called in and gave a different mental health assessment. Some of them testified that, this is a quote, she did not have a mental illness that would make her not responsible for her actions, end quote. That would make her not responsible for her actions. I just feel like that's just like an easier way to say these things, you know? Like, nope, she's a lawyer. I don't know. They always get so wordy. Well, it is the court of law, Bailey. You do have to be proud.

Anyways, to give you an idea of what Helen was like during her trial, it was said that she was unlike a lot of those being accused of murder. Most of the times when there's a murderer in court, they're very stone-faced, they show no emotion, and they just come across as like a monster or something, you know? But Helen in the court, it seemed like she could really feel what was going on. She was showing a lot of emotions.

She was sad is what I'm getting at. She was crying and stuff. Like it looked like she understood what she did. You know what I'm saying?

So her first hearing was originally delayed for like quite some time because I guess Helen had fainted. Drama, just drama all around. So she was rushed to the hospital and she was treated for dehydration. But then eventually, you know, she would go to trial. It was a five-day trial. And then Helen Patricia Moore was sentenced to three life sentences plus 10 years for the attempted murder. Yep. Okay. Bye-bye there.

So, you know, where are they now? So as far as her parents, Jesse and John,

Yeah, I didn't even talk about John at all. But they naturally had very mixed reactions to Helen's conviction. Jesse, Helen's mother, she was not convinced that Helen actually killed Andrew, you know, her son. She maintained that the two of them were so close, and there's no way. She knew that her daughter had killed the other ones. She was just not convinced that she killed Andrew. Jesse and John said that they didn't hate Helen for the crimes. They were just...

more like devastated at the tragedy of losing all of their children. They lost all of their kids.

all of them. They said they didn't believe that hating Helen would bring anyone back and they also didn't believe that giving Helen a life sentence would cure whatever was going on with her and others agreed because in 1999 Helen was released on parole and is thought to be living somewhere in Australia. Yeah so she's out there today just somewhere in Australia. Hey girl Helen should be about 60 years old and I have no thoughts. I have no thoughts because um I don't

I don't know, like is this a happy ending or not? I don't know. There's no excuse. At the end of the day, she killed people. So she has to be held responsible for that. Yeah. I was about to like, you know, if she was abused, that's, I could have, but no, no. She killed people.

What are you doing? I feel like Australia just, they're really forgiving over there, huh? You guys just don't give a fuck. Anyways, thank you guys so much for hanging out with me today. I guess the moral of the story here is like, if you have that gut feeling that's telling you something isn't right or telling you to do something, listen to your gut. Your gut knows something, right? Your gut knows what's up. And I feel so bad for Jessie's mom, but it's like, no, not Jessie's mom, Helen's mom, Jessie, because she tried.

She tried and she tried, you know? Anyways, I hope you have a good day today. You make your choices and I'll be seeing you guys later.