The Tragic Case of Lauren Dickason: The mother who killed her kids
In September 2021, New Zealand was rocked when the news broke that a mother, Lauren Dickason, had killed her three young daughters in the small town of Timaru.
42-year-old Lauren, originally from South Africa, was charged with murdering her children — 6-year-old Liane and 2-year-old twins Maya and Karla. The family had moved to New Zealand just weeks earlier, hoping for a brighter future. But shortly after arriving, Lauren experienced some sort of psychological break that led her to take her daughters’ lives.
Over the next two years, Lauren’s murder trial captivated the public in both New Zealand and South Africa. The harrowing details exposed during the trial and the difficult questions it raised about mental illness, postpartum psychosis, and what could possibly drive a loving mother to commit such a horrific act will not soon be forgotten.
Lauren’s Early Life and Mental Health Struggles
To understand what could have led to such tragedy, we first need to go back to Lauren’s early life.
She grew up in Pretoria, South Africa and had a very difficult childhood. Lauren struggled to fit in at school, make friends, and was never invited to dances or social events. She was described as a perfectionist and very organized, but also anxious and prone to thinking something would go wrong.
Lauren suffered from depression and anxiety from as early as age 15. However, despite her mental health issues, Lauren was highly intelligent. She graduated high school and went on to study medicine, becoming a general practitioner.
In 2006, Lauren married Graham Dickason, an orthopedic surgeon. Like many couples, Lauren and Graham dreamed of one day having a family together. But after years of fertility treatments, including a painful 17 rounds of IVF, the couple struggled to conceive.
Their hopes were briefly lifted when Lauren became pregnant in 2013, but tragedy struck when she went into premature labor at just 22 weeks, and their daughter Sarah passed away shortly after birth. Lauren was devastated, crying every day for months. The miscarriage took a lasting toll on her mental health.
After even more IVF attempts finally resulted in success, Lauren gave birth to her first child, Liane, in September 2014. However, Lauren suffered from severe postpartum depression after Liane’s birth. She struggled to bond with her baby and had difficulty coping with first-time motherhood.
In 2018, Lauren became pregnant again through IVF, this time with twins. Maya and Karla were born in November of that year. She quite her job as a medical practitioner to become a stay-at-home mom and bond with her kids. But again, Lauren experienced crushing postpartum depression. She had trouble connecting with the girls and would later tell police that she never felt that instantaneous maternal love that mothers gush about.
Lauren was prescribed antidepressants and received therapy for her postpartum depression. She loved her daughters, but found parenting extremely challenging.
The Decision to Immigrate to New Zealand
By 2019, Lauren was becoming increasingly anxious and paranoid about the political unrest and high violent crime rates in South Africa. She desperately wanted a safer, better future for her girls.
Graham secured a new job as an orthopedic surgeon in Timaru, New Zealand. And so the decision was made — the family would immigrate to New Zealand for a fresh start. Lauren told friends she was “literally shaking” with excitement.
In preparation for the big move, Lauren tapered off her antidepressant and anti-anxiety medications. She was worried that having mental health conditions could negatively impact their visa application.
In March 2021, as plans progressed smoothly, Lauren reported being the happiest she had been in over a decade. Her mood was optimistic, she was going regularly to CrossFit, and her eating habits and body image had improved.
But in reality, the lightness Lauren briefly felt in anticipation of the move would soon come crashing down.
Pandemic Delays and Lauren’s Downward Spiral
Lauren’s excitement was short-lived. The COVID-19 pandemic brought increasingly strict lockdowns in South Africa starting in March 2020.
Lauren described feeling like she was “in wartime” trying to manage the children at home. She felt neglected by her husband Graham, who was still able to work outside the home. Lauren’s mental health plummeted as she spiraled into a dark depression.
Making matters worse, the family’s immigration plans were constantly delayed due to COVID restrictions. The goal posts kept moving, leaving Lauren in a perpetual state of high anxiety.
By June 2021, Lauren told a friend she was “emotionally done.” She was crying everyday and said life felt like “shit.” She reported having more frequent thoughts of self-harm.
In July, political riots and looting erupted in South Africa in response to the jailing of former president Jacob Zuma. Lauren became increasingly paranoid, insisting she sleep with a 9mm pistol next to the bed. She would later say this period marked a turning point when she never felt “normal” again.
In early August 2021, just weeks before their departure, Lauren told Graham that she was having intrusive thoughts about sedating the children by giving them sleeping pills, putting them in the bath, and cutting their femoral arteries. Graham was concerned but assured Lauren things would get better once they started their new life in New Zealand.
The Murders in Timaru
The day of their immigration finally came — August 26, 2021. After an arduous journey, the Dickason family touched down in New Zealand. But after two stressful weeks quarantining in an Auckland hotel, Lauren felt no relief. She described the experience like “hell on earth.”
By September 11th, they moved into a rental home provided by the Timaru District Health Board for Graham’s new job. But Lauren was deeply unhappy in the modest small-town home, finding the cold house depressing. It was nothing like the house they had back in South Africa and didn’t come with all the luxurious she had become accustomed to.
She also didn’t like her neighbors much and she found the New Zealand people to be unfriendly. Lauren became convinced she had made a terrible mistake immigrating to New Zealand.
Graham started work right away, often working late hours whileLauren was isolated at home with three young girls under the age of 7. Her mental state continued deteriorating rapidly.
Then on September 16, just days after arriving in Timaru, the nightmare unfolded…
The day started out like any other. The family spent some time at home and later during the day, Lauren took the kids to a park to go and play.
That evening, Graham was out having dinner with colleagues and Lauren was home to look after the kids. She said that on this night the girls were particularly wild, throwing things around and jumping on furniture. She felt an overwhelming urge to escape and decided that she couldn’t go in this manner any longer. In her distressed state, she went to the garage and got cable ties, which Graham had recently purchased.
In an eerie dissociative state, Lauren strangled each of her girls in their beds with the cable ties. When that didn’t work effectively, she smothered them with their own blankets. Later that night, Lauren then tried to overdose on pills to take her own life.
A few hours later, Graham returned home to every parent’s worst nightmare. He discovered his daughters dead in their beds. Lauren was found in the kitchen, zoned out and groggy from the overdose attempt.
The next day, the 42-year-old mother was charged with murdering her three daughters.
What Could Drive a Mother to Murder Her Own Children?
As the trial loomed, the nation searched for answers. What could possibly have driven Lauren to murder her precious girls in cold blood?
The defense would argue that Lauren was legally insane due to severe postpartum depression and psychosis. They said she was driven by delusions that killing her daughters was an altruistic act of love to protect them from further suffering in life.
The prosecution, however, painted Lauren as an overwhelmed, resentful mother who desired control and couldn’t handle her daughters’ poorly-timed defiant behavior. They claimed Lauren understood what she did was morally wrong and simply snapped under the pressures of parenting.
But the reality is complex. In these unfathomable cases, there is no simple explanation. Mental illness, postpartum depression, feeling like a failure as a mother, isolation, and the stress of immigrating to a new country likely all collided inside Lauren’s mind. Her breakdown was likely the result of many compounding factors.
What we do know is that Lauren had always dreamed of being a mother. She endured 17 painful rounds of IVF to have her girls. No one who knew her believed she was capable of hurting them.
And so the nation watched in horror and heartbreak as this nightmare unfolded. Three innocent lives were lost and a family was destroyed. What went so wrong in Lauren’s mind to drive her to such extremes?
Lauren’s Murder Trial Grips the Nation
In July 2022, Lauren’s highly-anticipated murder trial began in the Christchurch High Court. The nation was about to hear the full disturbing story and evidence from both sides.
Lauren faced three charges of murdering her daughters Liane, Maya, and Karla. There was no question that Lauren had killed them — she had confessed. The trial would determine her mental state at the time and whether she met the legal criteria for insanity. If found insane, she could avoid prison.
Over four gut-wrenching weeks, the court heard testimony from police, first responders, Lauren’s family and friends, and an army of psychiatrists and psychologists. They painted a portrait of a woman beset by lifelong mental illness and postpartum depression who deteriorated rapidly under the pressures of parenthood.
The jury was tasked with deciding — was Lauren so mentally ill that she didn’t understand what she did was morally wrong? Or did she kill her girls out of resentment and anger?
Reliving the Horror
The first week of the trial focused on retracing the horrific events. Police officers and first responders emotionally recounted finding the girls dead in their beds. Lauren’s chillingly calm confession the day after the murders was played for the jury.
The jury also watched Graham’s raw interview with police as he struggled to process walking in on his daughters’ bodies just hours earlier. He described Lauren’s history of depression and recent difficulties. But he maintained she was a caring mother who he never imagined could harm the children.
Lauren’s parents spoke about their daughter’s lifelong mental health battles. Friends shared concerns over Lauren’s increasingly paranoid, disturbing social media posts leading up to the murders.
A picture emerged of a woman barely keeping it together…
But could that really lead her to kill?
The Psychiatrists Battle It Out
Next, psychiatrists took the stand, delving deep into the complex inner workings of Lauren’s mind.
Five experts had evaluated Lauren before the trial. They conducted over 50 hours of interviews to determine her state of mind during the killings.
The three psychiatrists testifying for the defense stated that Lauren was legally insane at the time due to severe postpartum psychosis.
They said she genuinely believed she was protecting her girls by removing them from a cruel world that she viewed through a lens of delusion. They pointed to Lauren’s chronic depression stemming from postpartum depression as the trigger.
However, the prosecution’s two psychiatrists disagreed. They argued that while mentally ill, Lauren understood what she did was morally and legally wrong. They said she had recovered from postpartum depression years earlier and was driven by resentment and anger, not delusions.
Each expert faced scrutiny over their conclusions, methodology, and potential bias. But they all stuck firm to their opinions on the stand. Just who was the jury to believe?
Lauren’s Fate in the Jury’s Hands
After four grueling weeks, it was time for closing arguments. The prosecution insisted Lauren knew exactly what she was doing and urged the jury to find her guilty of murder.
Lauren’s defense made an impassioned plea, saying she was a loving mother who experienced a total mental break. They said if given proper psychiatric care, this unfathomable tragedy could have been prevented.
The case went to the jury on August 15th, 2022. After 15 hours of deliberating, 11 of the 12 jurors had reached a verdict — guilty on all three counts of murder. The decision was unanimous that despite her mental health issues, Lauren understood the moral wrongness of her actions when she killed her girls.
A Stunning Verdict
On August 16th, the nation held its breath awaiting the verdict. Lauren Dickason stood emotionless in the courtroom as the jury foreperson uttered the devastating words:
“Guilty.”
Gasps and tears echoed in the courtroom. But Lauren remained steely-faced.
The verdict sent a powerful message — mental illness could not justify these crimes. By rejecting the insanity plea, the jury determined that even in Lauren’s depressed state, she knew what she did was fundamentally wrong.
The defense was shocked. They insisted Lauren had become detached from reality and killed out of twisted love, not anger.
But ultimately, the jury decided Lauren’s lifelong resentment towards motherhood and feeling trapped led her to punish her girls for misbehaving when she snapped. Their verdict means Lauren will most likely face years in prison. Sentencing is scheduled for December 19, 2023.
The Aftermath of An Incomprehensible Tragedy
In the trial’s aftermath, a nation was left struggling to process this incomprehensible tragedy.
The murders joined a long line of similar cases involving mentally ill mothers who took their children’s lives. But the question lingered — could it have been prevented with better psychiatric intervention?
Graham Dickason said in a statement that while he has forgiven Lauren, “there are no winners in this tragedy.” He returned to South Africa, leaving Lauren to face her fate alone.
The victims, of course, are the three innocent girls who lost their lives before they could barely get started. For their family and community, the grief left behind is immeasurable.
Lauren’s prison sentence, likely at least 13 years, will keep her separated from her surviving loved ones and from the new life in New Zealand she had hoped would bring happiness. Instead, three bright futures were stolen away, and countless others were left irreparably damaged.
While the jury may have brought some closure with their verdict, there are still no easy answers. Lauren’s case highlights how vital it is that we do more to care for mentally ill and struggling mothers before it’s too late. It’s a wake-up call to provide compassion and to learn the warning signs before tragedy strikes.
Perhaps then other families can be spared this agony.
