New York authorities suspect a mother suffering from a psychiatric illness that caused her to intentionally make her son sick has poisoned him to death.
Lacey Spears, 26, is believed to have Munchausen syndrome by proxy, an illness that causes a parent to make their child sick to get attention, The Washington Post reported. Authorities say Spears gave her 5-year-old son a lethal dose of sodium after researching the effects online.
Garnett-Paul Spears was declared brain dead after hospital staff found him unresponsive. He later died on Jan. 23.
The mother turned herself over to police on Tuesday and is now facing a charge of second-degree depraved murder and first-degree manslaughter.
"This is a very sad day for everyone, but it is a day for justice- justice for the betrayal of the intimate trust between a mother and child, justice for a mother's continual abuse and death of her innocent child for her own selfish psychological needs and financial gain," Captain Christopher Calabrese, head of the Westchester County Police Detective Division, told The Journal News.
An investigation into the child's medical history suggests Lacey Spears medically abused her son for years. Garnett was less than a week old when he was admitted to an Alabama hospital with an ear infection and high fever.
A few weeks later the baby's sodium levels were high and he stopped breathing, but doctors were unable to determine why, The Washington Post reported. Garnett was on a feeding tube by the time he was 9 months old.
Sympathizers reached out to Lacey on social media, which most likely increased her attempts, authorities said.
The abuse escalated in January when Garnett arrived at a hospital in Valhalla, New York, with dangerously high levels of sodium. Doctors said it was "metabolically impossible" for Garnett to have that much sodium in his system and alerted police, The Journal News reported.
But it was too late. Prosecutors say Lacey took her son into the hospital room's bathroom and injected sodium into his feeding tube. Police later recovered the bag she used to feed her son through the tube, The Journal News reported.
Lacey plead not guilty to the charges. She faces 20 years to life in prison if she is convicted.
