Melissa Lumbrera was a three-year-old Hispanic girl who died on October 2, 1978. Her death certificate listed asphyxia due to aspiration of stomach contents, and her mother Diana Lumbrera reported that Melissa had convulsions and then stopped breathing. Melissa was one of seven infants who died while in Diana’s care over a 14-year period; those earlier deaths were initially treated as medical emergencies when Diana rushed children to hospitals claiming they had stopped breathing.

Concerns about a pattern emerged only after Diana moved to Kansas and her four-year-old son José Antonio Lumbrera died there in 1990. Petechiae on José’s face and eyelids suggested possible asphyxiation, prompting an investigation that linked Melissa’s death and other previous infant deaths to Diana. Diana Lumbrera was arrested on May 5, 1990, and was later convicted and given life sentences in Kansas in 1990 and in Texas in 1991.

Melissa’s death is part of a series that raised questions about repeated unexplained fatalities in one family. Does anyone have information about Melissa’s life or the circumstances in their Texas home before 1978?