This Serial Killer Mom Will Send a Shiver Down Your Spine

When lust and greed made her a killer

When you read ‘woman serial killer,’ what comes to your mind? Romanoff from The Avengers? Agile, trained, and pulling jobs in a fancy suit?

Jolly Amma Joseph was anything but that.

She lived a sedentary life in the South Indian state of Kerala- working as a professor, married to a reputed family, and reveling as the apple of the eye of fellow villagers. She commanded respect with her job, earned love with her charm, and turned heads with her style.

And yet, despite having everything one could ask for, Jolly killed six members of her family.

Why, how, and whom did she kill?

First, some backstory.

The re-investigation

Siblings Rojo Thomas and Renji Thomas had a suspicion growing in them for long. Their parents(Tom Jose and Annamma) and brother(Roy Thomas) had died under strange circumstances. Jolly Joseph, our antagonist, was the wife of Mr. Roy Thomas.

The old parents(Tom and Annamma) had succumbed to cardiac arrests while Roy had allegedly committed suicide.

None of that made sense to Mr. Rojo.

However, the three deaths had occurred in the space of 9 years, and at no point did Rojo find any detail so compelling that warranted a re-probe into these deaths. However, in retrospect, these deaths were starting to smell fishy for him.

But it wasn’t just those three that passed away; there were three more deaths, all members of the extended family.

Mathew, Annamma’s brother, and Roy’s uncle was the fourth to die. Once again, a cardiac arrest. The pattern was repeating. This mishap happened in 2014, three years after Roy Thomas’ death.

But the fifth tragedy was the most gruesome among all-it was a two-year-old girl- Baby Alphine, who died from an accident during her Holy communion. This death happened in 2014 and two years later, her mother, Cily, too passed away.

The following family chart should help you declutter the confusion.

With so many mishaps, Rojo Thomas now had his fair amount of doubts to seek a thorough re-investigation into these six deaths.

However, it wasn’t easy to convince the cops. After all, the multiple deaths were spread over 14 years, and there was no new evidence that warranted a re-investigation.

But Rojo and Renji stood adamant, pulling strings and fighting battles to initiate a new probe.

Not long after, cops were at it, the bodies of the deceased were exhumed, and soon Kerala woke up to a tale of unmatched cruelty and planning it had never seen before.

Entire Kerala chanted one name in disbelief: Jolly Amma Joseph.

Murder no: 1 Annamma

Jolly got married to Roy Thomas in 1998. Some have faint memories of this being a ‘love marriage,’ but it is hard to imagine so.

Once married, being in Roy’s house, what bothered Jolly was the control Roy’s mother enjoyed in the house, especially in financial matters.

If you are wondering, it is not unusual for women to stay with their husbands’ parents in India. Indians seldom stay away from their parents, doing their honorable duty to care for them in old age.

Although it’s largely a patriarchal society in Kerala, there are women like Annamma, with exceptional ability, that command authority in the family set up. Jolly wasn’t impressed.

So Jolly masterminded her first murder by adding cyanide to the mutton soup Annamma had. It was a modus operandi she was going to use for many more kills. Annamma collapsed after consuming the soup, was hospitalized but soon passed away.

The family had no suspicion over Jolly; they blamed it on the hospital authorities and raised a complaint against them. Jolly watched it all closely, in devious satisfaction.

Thus in August 2002, Jolly successfully carried out her first job.

Murder no:2 Tom Thomas

It was September 2008. Tom, a widower now, well into the fag end of his life, wanted to share his property among his sons. He sold a 2-acre property, and part of the money did go to Jolly.

The rest was supposed to be divided among his children.

However, Jolly wanted it all for himself.

Jolly went ahead forging a document, according to which she and her husband Roy had the sole ownership of the land. And then, cyanide was mixed into Tom’s alcohol. He consumed it and, in 2008, passed away after continuous vomiting.

Jolly now had exclusive control over the house, abundant wealth, and no measure of control being exercised on her by the old parents.

Murder no: 3 Roy Thomas

Jolly was now the free bird, and it is said that she started developing relationships with multiple men. We do not know for certain what kind of affair it was, but her husband Roy had expressed his displeasure over the new developments.

It was hard to take for Roy, having lost both his parents and now his wife wayward. Quarrels constantly popped, and Jolly figured it was time to get rid of her husband.

So, in October 2011, Jolly mixed cyanide in Roy’s rice and moong dal curry. He was soon found dead inside his bathroom.

The post mortem revealed traces of cyanide, and an investigation was launched. But it went nowhere, and eventually, Roy’s mysterious death was dubbed as a suicide.

Jolly was literally jolly now. But she continued putting on the garb of a sad estranged woman, offering flowers at the cemetery of the deceased, and earning the sympathy of the village.

Murder no:4 M.M Mathew

It was around this time that some of the family members started connecting the dots. Annamma’s brother and neighbor Mathew had a firm suspicion on Jolly and insisted upon a re-postmortem.

Nobody took Mathew seriously, but the old man was showing resolve in getting it done. Jolly sensed danger. She called upon her cyanide skills again, mixing it with Mathew’s coffee.

So in April 2014, when Mathew’s wife had gone home, she ensured Mathew’s death. It was Jolly herself who had alerted the neighbors about Mathew’s condition, but he passed away before he could reach the hospital.

Jolly had cleared one another hurdle.

Murder no: 5 — Baby Alpine

Jolly had now carried out four murders in the space of 12 years. With money and freedom, now she wanted a new man for herself, and her lusty eyes fell on Shaju- son of Tom Thomas’s brother. He was a teacher by profession, and his mild manners and decency were perhaps traits that convinced Jolly that she could control him.

But there was one problem.

Shaju was married and a father of a two-year-old- Baby Alphine. It wasn’t going to deter Jolly, though.

May 2014. Jolly managed to coat Alphine’s bread with cyanide and fed her the same during the Holy communion. Alphine, much to the shock of her parents and everyone, choked, puked, and passed away.

Jolly was an absolute devil.

Murder no: 6- Cily

After finishing off Alphine in 2014, Jolly was raring to remove the last hurdle; Cily- Shaju’s wife. It was January 2016. She was waiting for the right opportunity and discovered one on the day of a visit to the dentist.

Shaju, Cily and Jolly were together, and Jolly had managed to discreetly slip cyanide to Cily’s medicine. She soon collapsed on Jolly’s lap.

Jolly had now completed her mission.

Nobody stood between her and Shaju now. She just had to be this caring woman offering a helping hand to the estranged man, and with a bit of frailty from his side, she will soon have Shaju.

The Shaju-Jolly wedding and Rojo’s findings

Jolly had conducted six murders using cyanide but a different medium as the carrier each time. Mutton soup, alcohol, moong dal curry, coffee, bread, and medicine.

In 2017, she tied the knot with Mr. Shaju. It was Jolly who took the initiative for the marriage. But somewhere else, the suspicion of Rojo Thomas had just hit a spike.

He always doubted Jolly, but his theories loomed strong with Alphine and Cily passing away quickly and Jolly getting her trophy in the form of Shaju.

He discussed his doubts with other relatives but hardly got any support. Unfazed, Rojo started his investigation.

He felt a strong suspicion over the document Jolly had forged- which placed all the ancestral wealth at her feet. There was now a genuine reason to file a complaint- one which the investigative officers couldn’t turn down.

The re-investigation

Going after the manipulated documents, Police couldn’t help but notice the shocking similarities in the multiple deaths that plagued the family. It wasn’t hard to see that Jolly was a common element, a continued presence in all the mishaps.

That couldn’t have been a mere coincidence.

A secret investigation was launched, centered around Jolly. She was monitored, and the force soon realized that Jolly was shrouded in mystery. When the forgery was proved, Jolly tried to pull out of the case by offering to return the possession.

But elsewhere, a team of efficient officers was tightening the screws on her.

And they came up with a shocking discovery.

Jolly- the professor

Everything that Jolly had done certainly doesn’t fit a lecture at a reputed institution; hell, it doesn’t fit a human being.

Well, it turns out, Jolly’s job as a professor at the National Institute of Technology was non-existent. She just woke up every day, put on her forged ID card, started her scooter, sometimes car, and drove towards the National Institute of Technology.

What she did there or how she spent her time is still a mystery, but she was never employed there.

Did she wander around the campus? Did she go elsewhere? Nobody knows. But Police knew that they were on to a real bluff master.

The interrogation

With enough evidence to drive Jolly into a corner, Police started interrogating her. Jolly’s responses were riddled with inaccuracies, discrepancies, and disparities.

But there was no way Jolly was going to admit her crime.

Soon, the bodies of six deceased family members were exhumed and sent for a thorough forensic examination. Jolly felt the force was closing in on her- and she later admitted that she had a bottle of cyanide kept for herself in case she was nabbed.

But Jolly drew solace from the fact that Police couldn’t trace it back to her. However, once the force checked her phone call records and found constant conversations with a relative of Jolly-M S Mathew, her fate was about to be sealed.

The Cyanide acquisition

MS Mathew worked in a jewelry-a place where Potassium cyanide finds constant use. The team then caught another accomplice-Praju Kumar, who also worked at a jewelry store. The duo had helped Jolly acquire cyanide.

Mathew and Praju didn’t have the tact, willpower, or determination of Jolly to dodge the Police’s question. They succumbed to the pressure and narrated the tales of how they let Jolly have the poison.

Police now had all the evidence to pin Jolly, and this time, with an abundance of facts against her, Jolly admitted her act. It was the endgame.

Unfortunately for her, Jolly was in custody before she could employ her suicide weapon, or perhaps she made that up.

Jolly was taken into custody.

And for almost a month or more, the public space of Kerala had nothing else to discuss. Just this nerve-wracking horror of a story.

According to Police, Jolly always carried a small container of cyanide in her bag. She was a cunning, intelligent killer, always vying for the opportunity, with a deadly weapon at her disposal all the time.

Where is Jolly now?

Unfortunately, in this part of the world, legal proceedings are a mighty time-consuming process. Jolly is currently lodged in a prison in Kozhikode district in Kerala. The trials for each murder are only underway. Remember, she was arrested in October 2019. The delay was also due to Covid.

Meanwhile, Jolly’s husband Shaju has filed a divorce petition calling his wife “someone with a deadly mindset.”

Kerala’s attention is now captivated by new crimes, other political issues, and climate change. Still, every time Jolly’s face appears on TV screens, a shudder of cold runs through the spine of every Keralite.

She was truly a monster.

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