A woman accused of slaying a pregnant friend and the fetus cut from her womb was ordered Monday to undergo psychiatric testing as authorities investigate her possible role in the drowning of the dead woman’s three children found in a washer and dryer.
During Tiffany Hall’s arraignment on charges she killed Jimella Tunstall and her unborn child, a St. Clair County judge entered not guilty pleas on her behalf, appointed a public defender and ordered that she remain jailed on $5 million bond.
At a public defender’s request, Judge Heinz Rudolf also insisted Hall is isolated from other inmates for her safety, though no known threats had been made against her.
Prosecutors say Hall killed 23-year-old Tunstall, who was about seven months pregnant, and her fetus on or about Sept. 15. It was three days later that Tunstall’s children were last seen with Hall, police say.
Hours after she was charged Saturday with killing Tunstall and her baby, investigators say she directed police to the Tunstall family’s apartment, where the bodies of the children – ages 7, 2 and 1 – were found decomposing in the washing machine and dryer.
Hall has not been charged in those deaths, and given that Hall is jailed on a significant bond and “not going anywhere soon” St. Clair County’s prosecutor Robert Haida says he’s in no rush to file additional charges. He added that he planned to present the matter to a grand jury Oct. 6.