Mother's Day is right around the corner, but not every mother deserves to be honored for the holiday. Some are mothers from hell, so horrible and heartless that they take the lives of their own children.

1. Leatrice Brewer
On February 24, 2008, Brewer killed her three children - Jewell Ward, age 6; Michael Demesyeux, age 5; and Innocent Demesyeux, age 18-months. The crime took place in New Cassel, Nassau County, New York. She drowned her two younger kids and stabbed Jewell, believing that she was saving them from voodoo. After murdering them, she tried to kill herself by ingesting aspirin and household cleaners. After that failed, she then tried to take her life by jumping from a second-story window.

Leatrice Brewer, 33, was found not guilty because of mental disease or defect in the 2008 deaths of her children, and has been held ever since at the secure Mid-Hudson Forensic Psychiatric Center in New Hampton.

While in custody in the psych ward, Brewer had another child, allegedly with another patient. The child was placed in foster care.

Credit: MikeBalsamoReports via Youtube

2. Maria Isabella Amaya

Amaya killed her four children - Halley William, age 11; Jessica, age 8; Christopher, age 6, and Edward, age 3, on May 30, 1990. The fatal stabbings happened in Port Chester, New York. She tried to commit suicide by drinking lye, but failed to kill herself.

An immigrant from El Salvador, Amaya was under psychiatric care at the time of the killings. She was found competent to stand trial and entered a plea of not responsible by reason of mental defect. The plea was accepted, and she has been hospitalized since.

3. LaShanda Armstrong

Armstrong killed herself and three of her children. Her oldest son was in the minivan but was able to escape. On April 12, 2011, the Newburgh, Orange County, New York, resident drove into the Hudson River. Landen Pierre, age 5; Lance Pierre, age 2; and Lainaina Pierre, age 11-month all died while 10-year-old La'Shaun Armstrong freed himself. She allegedly committed the murders to spite the father of the children, who she had gotten into an argument with.

A friend alleged that Miss Armstrong 'snapped' after finding out Pierre was cheating on her by sleeping with another woman. Sharon Ramirez, who admitted to having a relationship with Pierre, said Miss Armstrong was devastated.

Credit: Associated Press via Youtube

4. Waneta Ethel Hoyt

Hoyt killed five of her six children between 1965 and 1971 in Oswego, Oswego County, New York. She wasn't arrested for the crimes until almost 40 years after the first murder on March 23, 1994. She suffocated her babies and disguised it as Sudden Infant Death syndrome. The children she killed were Erik at 3 months, 10 days; Julie at 1 month, 17 days; James at 2 years, 4 months; Molly at 2 months, 18 days; and Noah at 2 months, 19 days.

She was sentenced to serve 75 years to life in prison on September 11, 1995. Hoyt died in prison on August 13, 1998, after serving less than three years.

In March 1994 Hoyt was approached while at the Post Office by a New York State trooper with whom she was acquainted. He asked her for help in research he was doing on SIDS, and she agreed. She was then questioned by the trooper and two other policemen. At the end of the interrogation she confessed to the murders of all five children by suffocation. Consequently she was arrested. The reason she gave for the murders was that the babies were crying and she wanted to silence them.

Credit: Robert DeBry via Youtube

5. Leisa Jones

A resident of Staten Island, New York City, New York, Jones decided to end the lives of her four children on July 22, 2010. She brutally slashed the throats of C.J. Raymond, age 14; Brittney Jones, age 10; Melonie Jones, age 7. Two-year-old Jermaine Sinclair Jr. died from smoke inhalation. She also died in the fire that she had set in their second-floor apartment.

The deeply disturbed Jones had allegedly told a pal several months ago that she thought about killing the kids and torching the house. C.J.'s dad, Earlston Raymond, said the friend told him Jones told her: 'At times, I feel like killing the kids and burning the house down and killing myself.' '[Jones] made that statement to more than one person, said the distraught dad, who lives in Jamaica and added that he learned of his ex's threats only after the tragedy.

Credit: New York Daily News via Youtube

6. Diane Odell

Odell killed her three children in three different years - 1982, 1983, and 1985. A resident of Sullivan County, New York, she wasn't actually arrested for the infants' deaths until May 17, 2003. She suffocated each baby to death. Odell received a sentence of 25 years to life in prison on January 28, 2004. The babies were found mummified in a storage shed in Safford, AZ in May 2003.

In that interview, Odell said her mother was present for all the births and may have been responsible for the deaths. She said she never told police about this because she feared her mother, who she describes as overbearing and cruel, even after her mother died. Odell said she loves all of her children — and she loved and wanted the ones who ended up in the Arizona shed.

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