By Dan Hust
MONTICELLO — May 23, 2003 – Sullivan County District Attorney Steve Lungen and the New York State Police announced on Tuesday that a sordid history had finally caught up with a former Sullivan County resident.
According to police and the DA, Diane Odell, 49, of Rome, Pa. was charged with three counts of second-degree murder for the deaths of her three newborns.
Their mummified remains were found in a box in an Arizona storage shed earlier this month, said police, and rental records were used to track down Odell, who had once lived in Kauneonga Lake, moved to Arizona and was living in Pennsylvania at the time of her arrest.
Odell, who has three grown children, was questioned by police 30 years ago in the death of another baby of her’s, whom she said was stillborn. Police said they will be reopening that case.
Odell will likely undergo psychiatric testing, said officials, but she’s facing charges here because police believe she had the babies from 1981-1984, while living in Kauneonga Lake. She brought the remains with her to several places before she left them in that Arizona shed, said police.
The newborns’ bodies are undergoing testing and analyzation in Arizona.