The Chronicle has obtained the police report for the December 23 discovery of a dead five-year-old and one-year-old in a Hunters Point home, and the senseless killings may have been the result of their mother’s case of postpartum psychosis.
Our Christmas Eve celebrations took a heartbreaking turn with the news of two children found dead in a Hunters Point home, and the quick arrest and murder charges against their mother, 34-year-old Paulesha Green-Pulliam. While Green-Pulliam has pleaded not guilty, it does not help her case that she reportedly admitted to police that she’d killed the two children, both daughters.
Now the Chronicle has new details from the 17-page police report, as well as additional reports from San Francisco Family and Child Services. In these we learn the new tragic detail that the Green-Pulliam had lost a son in childbirth just a few months prior. And the father of all three, her boyfriend whose name has not been released, said she’d been experiencing serious mental health issues since the son died in the womb, often muttering phrases like “They following us” and “They tappin’ my phone!” She also appears to have believed that someone was attempting to sexually traffic her two young daughters.
Per the Chronicle, an officer wrote in the police report that “[The boyfriend] believed that Green-Pulliam was going through post-partum [sic] depression however she was not diagnosed.” Similarly, an SF Family and Children’s Services agent wrote in their report that, “It appears that the mother has mental health issues.”
Other components of the Chronicle's police report summary are deeply disturbing, notably, details of the discovery of the two daughters’ bodies in a closet. “A box of keepsakes from their late brother had been placed on their chests — including a birth certificate, a handprint and footprints, and a pregnancy test,” according to the Chronicle. “Sonogram photographs of the boy lay on the floor below them.”
Mental health professionals are now concluding that Green-Pulliam was suffering from postpartum psychosis, which is not the same as postpartum depression, but is far more severe. A 2021 National Libraries of Medicine assessment says that “Postpartum psychosis is the severest form of mental illness in [the postpartum] category characterized by extreme confusion, loss of touch with reality, paranoia, delusions, disorganized thought process, and hallucination.”
That seems consistent with what officers described at the scene and found the two daughters dead. Green-Pulliam allegedly told an officer, after being put in a patrol car that tragic morning, that she killed her daughters to prevent them from being sexually trafficked. An officer wrote in their report that Green-Pulliam said, "I should have let that happen rather than take their life. I’m sorry."
Other bizarre details from the police report include that someone had scrawled on the walls of the household the words “I forgive you. Jesus save forgives.” Additionally, per the Chronicle, “A toilet was unflushed with bile inside the bowl, and next to Green-Pulliam on the couch was a bucket filled with vomit.”
The unidentified boyfriend added there were signs that Green-Pulliam has attempted suicide, and she’d told him she’d taken a large number of pills. Medics did not find pills in her system, though there were signs she had attempted to hang herself.
Green-Pulliam’s next court appearance is scheduled for February 16. She faces two murder charges and the possibility of life in prison.
Related: SF Woman Charged With Murder In Incident That Killed Two Children In Bayview [SFist]
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