BANGOR – As people in Texas and across the country struggle to come to grips with the tragic death of five young children at the hands of their mother, some people in Maine have been reminded of a strikingly similar tragedy that occurred here decades ago.

The case of Constance Fisher of Waterville, who drowned six of her own children in the family’s bathtub, still resonates in the mind of former state senator and retired judge John Benoit of Rangeley.

“It brings it to mind,” Benoit said Tuesday. “I can see it now – that autopsy room and that small youngster only 24 inches long on that table. It knocks you to your knees. You never get over that.”

Fisher was 24 years old and living in Waterville in 1954 when she drowned three of her children in the bathtub – Richard, 6, Daniel, 4, and Deborah, 1. Fisher was found not guilty by reason of insanity and was released after spending five years at the Augusta State Hospital, now the Augusta Mental Health Institute.

According to press reports at the time, her husband, Carl Fisher, petitioned heavily for her release, and in 1959, five years after she killed the couple’s children, a court approved her release.

The couple moved to Fairfield Center and went on to have three more children.

In 1966, for the second time in his life, Carl Fisher, then 33, returned home from his job at Maine Central Railroad to find that his wife had once again killed all of their children. The children were the same ages as their first three – Kathleen, 6, Michael, 4, and Nathalie, 9 months. All had been drowned in the bathtub.

Fisher remained at Augusta Mental Health Institute until October 1973, when at the age of 44 she walked away from the hospital. Officials were concerned she was suicidal. Her body was found five days later. She had drowned in the Kennebec River.

As media pundits, experts and lawyers argue about what should be the fate of 36-year-old Andrea Yates, who her attorneys claim was suffering from severe post-partum depression when she allegedly drowned her five children last week, Benoit said he didn’t recall that Maine prosecutors put up much of an argument against claims that Fisher suffered from a severe mental illness.

Each time she killed her children, Fisher tried to kill herself. The first time she drank a bottle of shampoo and the second time she overdosed on pills. She also left notes to her husband claiming that God had told her to kill the children.

In 1966, on the back of a greeting card, Fisher wrote, “I’m sorry I have to do this. I haven’t done a proper job of raising the children. They will be better off in heaven.”

In 1954 she wrote, “God told me it was the only way to save them,” according to press reports. “Maybe you don’t think I loved them. I did, oh I did; my heart is breaking. I loved you and I loved them.”

In a manner eerily similar to the tragedy in Houston, a doctor told reporters in 1954 that Fisher killed the 4-year-old boy first and then drowned the baby. Both of the children were then carried to their beds. The oldest child, Richard, was killed when he returned home from school, and his body was found in the bathtub, according to press reports.

In 1966, the baby was found in the tub and the two older children were placed on a bed and covered in blankets.

Fisher was found unconscious on a bed and was taken to a Waterville hospital for treatment.

In the jury trial in 1967, Dr. Walter Rohm of the Augusta State Hospital told the jury that Fisher suffered from oneirophrenia, a condition he likened to living in a “nightmare.” The doctor said Fisher would have suffered from profound feelings of hopelessness, despair and desperation. He said she would have felt that both she and the children were doomed.

“I think there was some anger at the time from people,” Benoit said. “But I interviewed her and I recall feeling a great deal of compassion. Imagine what state of mind a mother must have to be in in order to do this to her children. I remember more compassion than anger.”

Fisher may be the only person in Maine to be found innocent by reason of mental disease or defect in two separate murder cases. Attorneys in Houston representing Yates have indicated they may pursue a similar plea for their client.

In Maine, two mothers, Tonia Porter Kigas in 1993 and Maria Austin in 1997, both were found not criminally responsible for the deaths of their children by reason of mental disease or defect and both remain at Augusta Mental Health Institute today.

Kigas starved her 5-year-old daughter, Tavielle Kigas, to death in their Bangor apartment in 1993. Kigas was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.

Austin killed her 4-year-old daughter in their Farmingdale apartment in 1997. The child was beaten to death. Austin remains at AMHI but recently was given permission to spend up to two hours per week away from hospital grounds under the supervision of friends and family.

In 1999 Kigas was awarded additional privileges at AMHI and allowed to travel off the campus in groups of three with a single supervisor and is now allowed off her locked ward for 15 minutes each day.

William Stokes, head of the criminal division for the state Attorney General’s Office, said his office keeps a close watch over cases involving those committed by the court to mental institutions because they committed murder.

“Our position is that every petition for release or even petitions for more privileges be subject to a hearing in open court. We aren’t just going to say we agree [with a request for release]. We don’t do that. After all, this person has committed the ultimate act and this office believes that it’s only fair to everyone that all of these decisions be made in a public forum,” said Stokes.

Though many people found not guilty by reason of insanity do eventually get released from mental institutions, the process in Maine is slow and gradual, Stokes said.

“It’s a matter of them getting access to more and more freedom over a period of many years so that we can assess the way they adapt to that. … You can never eliminate the risk. All we can do is do our best to minimize it,” he said. “Obviously, the case involving Mrs. Fisher was the worst-case scenario.”

Benoit said he could not imagine a case like the Fisher case happening again.

“I think we learn from these things. I can’t imagine anyone killing her three children and then ever having the opportunity to kill three more,” he said.