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Patty Stallings is finally released after being sentenced to life for the murder of her two boys.  Patty Stallings  Patty was arrested and sent to jail CASE DETAILS On July 9, 1989, in St. Louis, Missouri, a young mother rushed her critically ill baby to the hospital. The baby was three-month-old Ryan Stallings. Since birth, Ryan had suffered from chronic gastric distress. On the day Ryan was brought to the emergency room, his breathing had become labored and he was vomiting uncontrollably. According to his father David, Ryan was immediately placed in the pediatric intensive care unit:
 Did she poison her children? David and Patty Stallings rented a hospital room to be near their son. After three agonizing days, the Stallings learned that Ryan would recover. The diagnosis, however, was shocking. Ryan had been poisoned. Patty Stallings was annoyed that authorities immediately considered her a suspect:
 Patty was finally released That same day, the police were brought in to investigate. According to Patty, detectives interviewed her husband in a separate room:
Ryan’s condition improved. After twelve days, he was released from the hospital, but not to the custody of his parents. Patty and David’s contact with Ryan was severely restricted. According to Patty, they were allowed only a one-hour visit each week on Thursdays:
The parental visits continued for five weeks. During the sixth visit, Patty was left alone with Ryan a short time. Three days later, Ryan suffered another severe attack of vomiting. Once again, he was rushed to the hospital. Once again, the diagnosis was poisoning. Authorities came to Patty’s house with an arrest warrant:
 Ryan Stallings Patty Stallings was arrested and charged with assault. While Patty languished in jail, her son was dying. Ryan was placed on life support systems. David Stallings found himself trapped in a private hell:
On September 7, 1989, Ryan Stallings died. He was not yet six months old. His mother, Patty, was now charged with first-degree murder and held without bail. She was not allowed to attend Ryan’s funeral. A few weeks later, Patty discovered she was pregnant again. Six months later, David Stallings Jr. was born. Even though David Sr. was not a suspect, he was not allowed to take his son home. The baby was placed in foster care. Ironically, this devastating blow would turn out to be a stroke of good luck. Without it, Patty and David Stallings might have been accused of poisoning their second son.  Patty & David Stallings with their son David When David Stallings Jr. was two weeks old, he began to exhibit symptoms identical to the ones that had plagued his brother Ryan. This time, the diagnosis was different. David Jr. had a rare genetic disorder, MMA, in which the body produces chemical by-products that are similar to the chemicals found in antifreeze. Unsolved Mysteries contacted an independent medical expert about MMA:
While prosecutors evaluated the medical evidence, Patty Stallings was released from jail. However, Patty was still denied visitation rights with her new born son:
 Ryan passed away Yet local officials continued to pursue Ryan’s case. Their position was that Ryan Stallings had not died from MMA. In the judge’s chambers, they cited four expert witnesses. The judge refused to allow the diagnosis of David Jr. presented to the jury. George McElroy was the prosecuting attorney on the case:
 The Stallings received custody of David Without the medical testimony, the case against Patty seemed airtight. The prosecution focused on the events of Thursday, August 31, 1989, Patty and David’s sixth parental visits with Ryan. It was on that visit that David’s parents were invited for the first time:
According to George McElroy, Patty was alone with David anywhere from three minutes to eight minutes:
 The prosecution believed Patty poisoned her baby However, David Stallings disagreed that his wife fed their newborn son while she was alone:
 They were allowed supervised visits But the jury sided with the prosecution and on March 4, 1991, Patty Stallings was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Each visit with her son was limited to one hour. David Stallings Sr. was allowed to see his son once a week:
Update: Shortly after this story aired, doctors from all over the county called to say there were familiar with MMA. Dr. Piero Rinaldo, a renowned scientist from Yale University, even performed tests that confirmed MMA was the cause of Ryan’s death. Consequently, the prosecuting attorney dropped all charges against Patty Stallings. David Stallings Jr. was finally allowed to come home. Watch this case now on Amazon Prime in season three with Robert Stack and in season four with Dennis Farina. Also available on YouTube with Dennis Farina. Various seasons available now on Hulu. |
A. Estada
To, Maura Stallings, how did your brother D.J Stallings die? At 23. RIP for your poor father, who was just as stressed for what was going on with his family.
Eruditioner
Wow, this is a lot of commentary! Just watched the Forensic Files show, it is a relief to see she went free. And that the “Chemist” at the lab that didn’t notice the difference between antifreeze and a different chemical! This happens in my small town when families hire other family members without training; didn’t expect that in a large city! Hope the lab got sued and closed down!
But really glad the experts found she was innocent; and hope they use different color markers to differentiate the ethylene glycol and poor Ryan’s blood tests… it’s hard to see the difference in the Forensic Files show.
Chris Halkides
The district attorney should not be held responsible for what the laboratories did and did not do. The laboratories did not follow basic scientific principles and ignored evidence that the substance was not ethylene glycol. I use this story as a cautionary tale in a class on forensic chemistry.
Sari johnson
It IS the Prosecutors fault for not allowing the evidence of her other child with the same symptoms being brought into her court case !! If jurors knew that important info, she would have been found NOT GUILTY
sue
She also has a daughter she abandoned so , maybe the only thing she is innocent of is murder but to me she still a example of a woman and mother
Anonymous
What ever happened to Patty stallings? Any update of her life such as where she is, what she does, how she is doing if she still is alive?
How did her son die? He was so young.
Anonymous
I played David Stallings in the television story, To hear the father tell the story in a closed pre shoot environment was extremely difficult to bare. Highly emotional. I sincerely hope the scars are or have healed.
Stacy
Okay. The substance in the bottle was created from the saliva of Ryan. No one killed him. The doctors misdiagnosed then mistreated and it lead to his death but it was a rare condition. It was not intentional misconduct. The prosecutor was looking at the evidence he had them actively persued MMA after David was diagnosed and was told that mma contributed to his death but tgat poison was also a factor so he moved forward on the case. As soon as the case was aired on tv and doctors familiar with mma contacted the da, he looked into it and requested conviction overturned and immediate release. There was no misconduct by law enforcement or government offices. Even the lab didn’t doo anything wrong intentionally. It is a sad case all around and i hope that it continues to help teach future lawyers, doctors chips and technitions to tread lightly and fight to turn over every stone in all cases.
Veritas1919
There was misconduct. No expert decided that ethylene glycol was also used. The DA decided that it was. His an opinion based on conjecture, not fact. An expert told the DA before trial it was most likely MMA. The DA still had access to Ryan’s blood and could have tested for MMA, but chose not to do so. The notes from the MD that pronounced Ryan dead suggested in his notes it could be MMA. The second child had MMA. Before trial, an expert said it was most likely MMA, but the DA got this evidence excluded. Any exculpatory evidence for the defendant is supposed to be allowed at trial. It wasn’t until UM aired and more experts called in that Ryan’s blood was tested. The Judge and the DA ignored the evidence and intentionally allowed exculpatory evidence to be withheld at trial. The DA, Judge and the Stallings attorney should be prosecuted for misconduct or at the least tried for ethics violations.
Anonymous
Patty donated $10,000 to McElroy’s opponent when he ran for reelection. He lost!
Anonymous
Like Patty, I was innocent but charged with a crime in St. Louis. After two trials with hung juries, charges were dropped. I later learned the Prosecutor had been blackmailed into ruining my family and business. I lost everything due to negative publicity and legal fees. However, I was able to expose the corrupt St. Louis Prosecutor and I made an award-winning movie about the whole story. http://www.Beholder.com
The movie is on YouTube as well as NetFlix and Amazon.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXF7Y-DEN7s
I would like to contact Patty about making a movie about her ordeal. My contact info is:
ken@rivercityent.com 818-905-4684
Anonymous
That movie has nothing to do with what happened to Patty. I tried watching the movie on site you had…..boring!!!!
libby2140
do you know how to read,,, they said that movie was about THEIR own story and they want to make a movie about what happened to Patty and her family
Anonymous
I actually know Patty, she was very close friends with my older sister. Patty, her mom and sister lived across the street from us for years. When this had happened my sister and Patty werent close but still in touch. I never for a second thought she was capably of this. She was always great with me and my nephew and I kept a tabs on her case throughout the whole thing. Horrible that the system failed her in such major way. Hopefully this case has helped someone else from going through this
Anonymous
If I were the Stallings, I would definitely sue both the state of Missouri and the prosecutor’s office. I guarantee!!
Anonymous
They did & a settlement was reached, the details of which were sealed & never released.
Sadly
The prosecuting attorney in this situation (George McElroy) was absolute filth, a sad excuse for a human being. He KNEW about the MMA diagnosis and still charged Patty after the fact and refused to allow that evidence to be admitted into the trial where she received life in prison. He literally allowed an innocent women to go to prison after losing her first child and tried to convince the world she had murdered that child.
What kind of horrible person would do that? Then he played all surprised after throngs of doctors came forward to defend her and the subsequent tests PROVED that the infant died of MMA rather than poisoning.
George McElroy Represents everything wrong with this world and our justice system. It was all about winning cases and never about the truth or justice.
It was person for him in that he was trying to further his career by framing an innocent mother as a murderer of her own child. Absolutely deplorable and unthinkable to anyone with ethics, which he lacked.
I saw where Patty did eventually challenged to get him out of office and raised money for the challenger but I do not know how that turned out way back when.
I am curious as to what happened to Mr. McElroy. I can only hope he was disbarred from ever practicing law again. He knowingly tried to ruin someone’s life despite the evidence and I imagine karma came back to him in subsequent years. I know this was a long time ago now but a situation like this is unforgivable. Bottom line/ had unsolved mysteries not done the show they did on the case, Patry would still be in prison, still be innocent and mr. McElroy would be to blame. She was freed DESPITE his attempt to ruin her life and place her child’s death on her hands.
Unthinkable. Totally unfathomable. Again, everything that is bad about our justice system, selfish, self-serving prosecuting attorneys trying to imprison innocent people for the sake of saying ‘I won a murder conviction and my record is more important than your life, your reputation, actual justice and truth.’
Veritas1919
McElroy lost that election. He attempted to show Patty’s records to the new DA that beat him. In return the new DA had most of the criminal record against Patty expunged.
jeanne albin
I hope they sued all involved, this is terrible
Jj
Would like to know if they are all ok now….and if any compensation was given to them…after all she was denied being with her son when he died………
Ivy
Yes they ended up getting millions from the hospital and county, etc. but how on earth could that “fix” a loss that huge…they basically killed her child (the treatment given based on the incorrect poisoning diagnosis caused his death) and then blamed her for it. Ugh
maura
she left her family like a coward she deserved what she got
Dot
Sadly David Stallings passed away in 2013 he was a neighbor of mine and I can tell you he had a very sad life. Patty Stallings seem to suffer a nervous breakdown after she was let out of prison ( bought a different color Corvette for every day of the week among other things )and went on to marry another man and had another family and left David with his father and his father’s new family
Who didn’t seem to have the time or the coping mechanisms to help David in any meaningful way he was in and out of psychiatric centers and from what I could see had a very lonely life. I never saw his family visit him at home or when he had to go to the hospital which was pretty regularly . His Facebook page remains untouched after his death and his obituary is so sad
Laura
That is heartbreaking – so many lives ruined by errors, carelessness, ignorance, and outright negligence. I understand why Patty would have difficulties after her long and sad ordeal, but she had a child who needed her, to a greater extent than most kids that age. She should have done whatever it took to pull herself together – therapy, taken some time away to process everything and then return, whatever. She said Buddhism got her through the legal ordeal; she could have gone to a retreat.
I realize that Patty suffered, as did David Sr. But to me, the most innocent victim (other than Ryan) was David Jr. It sounds like he suffered the most.
Ben Scott
You need to walk a mile in someones position to have empathy.
Laura Marie
What is is name on Facebook where I can find him?
libby2140
that would be their son david jr…yes very sad
Katrina
I briefly dated dj back in 05 when we were in high school together. He was so upfront and honest about it all. He was hurt and you could definitely see it. But he used to always laugh and made so many people laugh. It saddens me more that we stopped talking after graduation
Kim
I have two children with the same disorder and I almost lost my little girl it took the same hospital a long time to tell me what was wrong and they had us to take her to Scottish right children hospital for test
read this post
after this happened patty left David sr. and D.J. I am upset by this and just ashamed. I know she is inanest for killing but for leaving her family not inanest for everything.
Ben Scott
Were you ever in prison for no reason & a corrupt prosecuter? Of course Mrs. S went insane!!
Becky Atkinson
I feel so that Patty had to spend almost two years in prison for a crime she didn’t commit. A crime that never even happened. The poor woman suffered a big loss and couldn’t even go to her babies funeral. If you see this Patty know that some people are sorry and hope you were able to move on. God bless you
Richard Diaz
Patricia loved her first son and he loved her. The truth remains and will remain eternal for her, Ryan, D.J., David Sr and from each one to each other.
Anonymous
I personally knew Patty and all involved. I even babysat DJ. She did receive a large settlement in 93. Unfortunately she and David divorced after all the trauma. The DA and judge in the case went with what they had evidence of and when the DA had doubts he researched them and eventually released her. Patty was never angry at the justice system for doing their jobs, but she was angry that Ryan died from something that could have been treated. That’s why she didn’t sue the judicial system but the medical system.
Alisha
Is it true that David Jr. died in 2013? What is Patricia up to now?
maura stallings
yes, he was my brother i was 8 years old and my dad died last year. none of us have heard from her in probably over 20 years.
Chris Halkides
Maura, I am a biochemist who has written about this case. If you care to speak to me about it, please contact me.
Heather
If you were 8 in 2013 then you were born in 2005 and not even 20 years old yet so how could you have not seen her in 20 years?
Jeffery
She did not say SHE has not seen her in over 20 years, but that NONE of them have seen her in that time frame, which means that the entire family, including those older than her, have not. That would be possible.
Becky Atkinson
Please tell her she’s in my prayers. I hope she found peace somehow and I’m so sorry her home state allowed this t o happen to her.
randy
Why did the d.e.a not go to jail or something for putting these poor folks thu that.
Gildaa
Did patty stallings ever have a lie detector test?
susan
and what would a lie detector test have proven?? they are unreliable and inadmissable in a court of law!!! science prooved she was innocent…. Thank goodness you have nothing to do with upholding the law in any way!!! get some education…. basic education would serve you well 😉
critter
so in other words the state killed an innocent child same on the judge and attorney having there heads up there butts.
heather hughes
patty stallings was a lot of things ,but a murderer she was not. She and her ex husband eretried to parent DJ, but were unable to , as were David and his ex second wife Mary Elizabeth. Sadly DJ had a rough life and passed away on Sept. 15 2013.
curious
What do you mean that she was a lot of things?
friend of family
Mary Elizabeth was the 3rd wife and 3rd ex wife
susan
passed away from what??? drugs?
maura stallings
it’s funny how people think they know your family but they don’t at all my dad was the best man in the entire world he put his heart and soul into his kids. along with my mom, Mary, who is the best single mother you could ever ask for. I love my brother DJ and I looked up to him. My parents did all they could do and so did his siblings.
SummerK
Maura, I’m so sorry for the loss of your father and your brother. Sad for everyone all around.
Steph
I’m so sorry for your loss. I advocate for a woman on TX death row who is innocent. I was just looking for an update and I was hoping to see a happy ending I guess. I’m sorry to hear for all of your loss.
me
all because of one man dr. rinaldo? thats all it took…one man…ridiculous. I believe she didnt want to raise a child with MMS so she poisoned him, which after they let her out of jail, she decided to raise the other child david and not poison him, so she wont go back to prison for life. She is guilty.
critter
your are a fool and blind by facts she didn’t kill her child her second child was born when she was in jail. and found out he had mma. not sure why it took long for people to get the right story. many people have those things in there homes its not surprise hack we used anti freeze in winter for car.
Randy
people like you are the resin they are been so many people die on death row and was innocent!
Becky Atkinson
You’re an ignorant woman.it was not one dr. Did you not hear that the switchboard was flooded by calls after the show aired. Doctors from all over the world called. If you are ever falsely accused and imprisoned I hope you have people just as ignorant as you are defending you. The woman spent almost t so years on prison and didn’t get to attend her baby’s funeral for something that did not even happen. Before ypu make stupid statements in the future get facts. You are an idiot.
GS
You are seriously one of the most ignorant individuals I have ever come across! Wow, what school system produces someone as ridiculously ignorant!! The show clearly states the Prosecutor was wrong and apologized. Multiple doctors from around the country called to confirm the improper diagnosis yet you think there’s something the mother did!! You deserve to be wrongly accused yourself!! The person who should go to jail is the cop or technician who planted or faked the glycol results from the baby bottle. That’s who should go to jail! This family was so wronged they should have received a settlement from the lovely state of Missouri!! I know I won’t be traveling there again after seeing this episode and there justice system with a judge who should have thrown the case out in the first place. Egos are what got in the way here!! Cops and prosecutors are singularly focused and blind to the truth. You are just an idiot!
susan
you are psychoitc
Ivy
The children has MMA not MMS (idiot) and it was several men and women (all of whom are much more intelligent than you – not hard) who realized that a mistake had been made and that mistaken diagnosis caused her son’s DEATH. They gave him treatment that killed him because the diagnosis was WRONG! SO SAD!
Ivy
You are an idiot
Jackie D
I think you are dumb. MMA was what killed Ryan and DJ was also diagnosed with it as well. She did not poison her son!
Jessica
I watch this story from time to time in youtube. It touches me. There is a lady that looks just like her in my town but older of course. I’m so tempted to ask if it’s her.
Leigh Ann R
The next time you see her…you should ask!! Then, come back here and tell us!!! 😉
s benner
WHY was the DA not held reasonable. And tried for false atrest