Mother Who Dropped Her Two Young Children Off the Sellwood Bridge Dies in Prison

Amanda Stott-Smith, 45, pleaded guilty to the 2009 murder. The Oregon Department of Corrections did not release a cause of death.

Willamette River beneath the Sellwood Bridge. (Vikesh Kapoor)
By Lucas Manfield

Amanda Stott-Smith died Sunday in Coffee Creek Correctional Facility where she was serving a life sentence for dropping her two children off the Sellwood Bridge. Her son, age 4, drowned and her daughter, 7, survived.

Stott-Smith was 45. The Oregon Department of Corrections did not explain how she died.

In 2009, 7-year-old Trinity Smith and 4-year-old Eldon Jay Rebhan Smith were fished out of the Willamette River by two residents of a nearby floating home. Amanda Stott-Smith was later arrested by police as she attempted to jump off the ninth floor of a downtown parking garage.

The murder captivated Portland, spawning front page headlines and later a book investigating how a mother could do the unfathomable, and how child welfare officials failed to see it coming.

Related: A Portland Mother Dropped Her Children Off the Sellwood Bridge. Nine Years Later, a Book Tells Us How She Got There.

Portland Fire & Rescue later named a rescue boat after the two children.

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