Doctor: Mom's Psychosis Led to Killing
Pastor Dale Morgan
Doctor: Mom's Psychosis Led to Killing*
Tuesday January 15, 2008 4:31 AM
PEKIN, Ill. (AP) - A mother was severely depressed and experiencing a
psychotic episode when she suffocated her autistic 3-year-old daughter
with a garbage bag, a doctor testified Monday at the woman's murder trial.
Karen McCarron was haunted by thoughts that she was responsible for
Katherine ``Katie'' McCarron's autism, defense witness Dr. Joseph
Glenmullen said, the Journal Star of Peoria and the Pekin Daily Times
reported.
``Karen was severely obsessed with the idea, and she believed it, that
she caused her daughter's autism,'' Glenmullen said. ``Karen was
convinced of that.''
McCarron said she ignored God's warnings by listening to doctors and
having Katie vaccinated, then believed the vaccinations caused the
autism, said Glenmullen, who works at Harvard University and came to her
conclusion by reading another psychiatrist's interviews, reviewing
medical records and hearing other testimony.
``She felt she ignored God's suggestions,'' he said.
McCarron, 39, has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to murder,
obstructing justice and concealment of a homicidal death. She was found
mentally fit to stand trial, but her defense attorneys have said she was
insane at the time of the killing.
Prosecutor Kirk Schoenbein said McCarron was never found to be psychotic
by any other doctor before or after the killing.
``You're the only mental health professional in Karen McCarron's life
that's ever said she's psychotic,'' Schoenbein said to McCarron.
McCarron had lost weight, been depressed for more than two weeks and
felt helpless when she killed Katie, Glenmullen said.
``She meets more than half of the definitions of someone with major
depression,'' Glenmullen said.
McCarron saw a psychiatrist in Chicago for depression but stopped taking
medication before the child's death because she thought it worsened the
condition, Glenmullen said.