Karen McCarron’s trial to begin tomorrow

I don’t have cable or watch much TV, so I don’t know if this trial is getting any national publicity.

Karen McCarron had a daughter, Katie. Katie was autistic. Katie is described by her loving and heartbroken family as “beautiful, precious and happy.” Here’s a picture of Katie:
katie

(What follows involves the murder of a child, so if you don’t want to read it I understand.) 

Karen decided she wanted a “life without autism” and she suffocated 3-year old Katie with a plastic bag while she was at her (Karen’s) mother’s home, then took Katie’s body back to their home, carried her body upstairs (past other family members) and put her in bed, then returned to her mother’s home to dispose of the bag.  The next morning she tried to overdose on over the counter medication, and confessed to the police.

After countless delays, Karen’s trial begins tomorrow. I trust that justice will be served.

Myself, I don’t want a life without autism, thanks. I like my life just fine. Rest in peace, little girl.

6 thoughts on “Karen McCarron’s trial to begin tomorrow

  1. How awful!

    Okay, I had a whole thing typed in here about how mothers in this country just don’t have the support needed to deal with parenting any child, autistic or not, but then I read the article you linked and it sounds like this mother was stressed not because she didn’t have support, but because she couldn’t “fix” her child. Ugh.

  2. i’ve been reading your journal for a while, and haven’t had much to say yet… what can i say, i’m a notorious lurker. however… it’s time to say something! i’m going to try to keep from getting all “soap box-y” here, but i can’t promise anything…

    i worked in mental health care for 5 years. i taught high functioning adults with varying degrees of MR how to care for horses, i changed diapers and fed our lower functioning clients, i was a one-on-one caretaker for a young man with autism on and off for most of those 5 years. in fact, i still stay with that young man for two weeks a year when his mom has to travel. and a tiny fraction of me can understand that desire. however, a TINY fraction of me can also understand the deep despair that mothers who harm their children while suffering from post pardom depression… that desire to remove the “supposed” object of their “pain”. but just because i can empathize with the pain doesn’t make it right.

    i took the job as a means to an end… they had good health care, and a schedule that worked with my classes. it sucked. i dragged myself to work every day. i couldn’t understand why ANYONE would want that kind of job. something clicked one day though, and i finally allowed myself to look at it from a different perspective… someone else is trusting me with their special, precious child who just happens to be a bit “different” from the majority of people that i interact with. does this mean they have anything less to offer me?

    it didn’t make the job instantly easier, but it made the good days a lot better. i couldn’t even begin to tell you all the ways i benefitted from having those kids in my life. i think a lot of life has to do with the lens through which you look at it.

    … i guess i’m sort of preaching to the choir here, but i needed to say it 🙂

    oh, and i LOVED the difference between disability and impairment as you mentioned the other day. i actually cut and pasted that little clip into an email to a few friends of mine who are still in the field. and to the mom of my autistic friend 🙂

  3. She couldn’t POSSIBLY have felt overwhelmed, her husband had been caring for the child alone with the help of family, she chose NOT to join them until she couldn’t find a job. She should have stayed with her ‘perfect’ other child and left this beautiful girl alone. She could have left anytime.

    It makes me want to puke, and like you Fee, I’ll gladly live my life with autism.

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