Rachel Tunstill’s chilling words before she stabbed baby to death with scissors resurface as she’s found dead in prison
A KILLER mum’s chilling words before she stabbed her baby to death with a pair of scissors have resurfaced after she yesterday died in jail.
Rachel Tunstill knifed Mia Kelly more than 15 times in the bathroom of her home in Burnley, Lancashire, in 2017.
She had asked her unsuspecting partner Ryan Kelly, who was playing games next door at the time, for the murder weapon.
He unwittingly handed Tunstill the scissors, causing the mum to reply “thanks babe” before closing the door.
The killer then murdered the baby she had just given birth to, wrapped her in plastic bags and dumped her in the kitchen bin.
Her gruesome final words before stabbing Mia have resurfaced after Tunstill yesterday died in jail.
A Prison Service spokesperson confirmed: “HMP Styal prisoner Rachel Tunstill died in custody on 1 August 2023.
“As with all deaths in custody, the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman will investigate.”
Tunstill was first convicted of murder in June 2017 and handed a life sentence.
That conviction was overturned a year later by the Court of Appeal after judges ruled the jury should have been offered a lesser alternative charge of infanticide.
The killer mum then went before the courts again and was found guilty of murder in February 2019 for a second time.
She was jailed for life with a minimum of 17 years.
Tunstill secretly gave birth to Mia while Ryan played computer games in the next room.
Tragically, the tot had been born alive but died after being stabbed in the back, neck and chest.
The university masters graduate in forensic psychology dumped the baby in a bag and told her partner, who thought she was only a few weeks pregnant, that she had miscarried.
Police arrested her after she went to hospital for a check up and medics found she was still carrying the baby’s umbilical chord and placenta.
Officers discovered she had carried out haunting web searches, including “how to end a pregnancy late”.
Tunstill had also looked up information on evil Mick Philpott, who killed six of his own children in a house fire.
Chillingly, Tunstill never gave a reason for murdering her baby daughter although her lawyers claimed her balance of mind was disturbed at the time of the killing.
Speaking previously, Detective Chief Inspector Gareth Willis, of Lancashire Police, said: “This was a truly horrifying and callous killing of a defenceless newborn baby by her mother, her source of life and who should have been her source of love.
“What is worse is that a totally innocent man, still coming to terms with the realisation he had a daughter and that she had died, was questioned by police because Tunstill lied about the fact she had killed the baby, stating that it was stillborn.
“She has still never admitted why she killed Mia.”