commentary by Patrick H. Moore
Since I started All Things Crime Blog 15 months ago with the able help of BJW Nashe and Michael D. Sellers, the director of the film “Karla”, I have been flung into the world of social media. It’s a big world and there are still many parts of it that I do not understand. For example, trying to stay on the good side of the folks at Reddit may always prove a mystery.
One thing I’ve discovered is that blogging and utilizing social media is a form of addiction which is probably at least as addictive as heroin or crack cocaine. And like addiction to a powerful drug, blogging induces a powerful “kick” or “rush” when things are going well. The difference, of course, is that the addiction to blogging is psychological, not physical as is the case with heroin. Again using drugs as an analogy, however, suggests that addiction to certain drugs is far more psychological than physical, crack cocaine and methamphetamine being the prime examples. (Heroin, of course, is notorious for causing both physical and psychological dependency.)
The tricky thing about blogging is that you cannot blog successfully in a vacuum; i.e; the blogger (any blogger) needs readers, viewers, followers, friends of his or her venture. Without that essential ingredient, blogging is probably even less satisfying than masturbation or overeating.
Now we have the case of the so-called “Mommy Blogger”, an upstate New York woman, that may have instigated a strategy in which she actually poisoned her young son and then reported on his chronic health problems in order to gain followers for her blog which she named “Garnett’s Journey” (named after her son, of course).
Andy Campbell of the Huffington post writes:
Police are investigating whether a mommy blogger who frequently wrote about her son’s “courageous” battle with sickness was actually just poisoning him to get attention.
Lacey Spears, 26, of upstate New York, hasn’t been charged with a crime. But she’s at the center of a criminal probe after investigators found that her 5-year-old son, Garnett, had suspiciously high levels of sodium in his bloodstream before he died in January, according to CBS News. His death has been ruled a homicide.
Garnett had been in and out of the hospital his entire life for various illnesses. His mother documented his medical problems in a blog called “Garnett’s Journey.” Police expect their investigation to prove that Spears was feeding him life-threatening amounts of salt and then blogging about his declining health in a case of Munchausen syndrome by proxy, a psychiatric disorder in which a parent sickens a child for sympathy, according to The Journal News.
Munchausen syndrome by proxy notwithstanding, Lacey’s online circle cried with her at news of another hospitalization and rejoiced with her as they saw the sickly boy grow. Her followers offered prayers and support and followed the twosome on Facebook as Lacey moved in 2010 from her hometown Decatur, Ala., to Clearwater, Fla., where she and “G” — as he was known — lived with Lacey’s grandmother for a brief, idyllic time. In 2012, Lacey moved Garnett north, to Chestnut Ridge’s secluded Fellowship Community in upstate New York, saying she hoped the close-to-the-earth living would be the answer to the boy’s chronic health issues.
January 19th was the beginning of the end. That was the day Garnett was airlifted from Nyack Hospital to Westchester Medical Center, where doctors discovered that he had unnaturally high levels of sodium in his system. The doctors made their unnerving and highly unusual discovery even as Lacey shared photos of him on life support on her blog. Poor Garnett hung on for four days befor expiring on Jan. 23rd. While Garnett fought to keep breathing, the Westchester County police, the district attorney’s office and the Ramapo police began investigating the case.
Every strong case needs a “smoking gun” which in this instance may prove to be a feeding bag that Lacey used to feed Garnett through a nutrition tube affixed in his abdomen.
As Garnett lay struggling in the children’s ward of the Westchester Medical Center, Lacey reportedly phoned a friend and asked her to dispose of the feeding bag in question. It’s not clear if, or at what time, the friend turned Lacey in, but the police later seized the bag, which sources say contained a high concentration of sodium.
Like all good defense lawyers, Spears’ lawyer, David Sachs, denies that she tried to get rid of evidence in her son’s death.
“Lacey is completely devastated by the loss of her son and absolutely denies harming her son in any way,” said Sachs, according to the International Business Times.
At least some of those following this case seem to show no hesitation in throwing Lacey under the bus even though the case is still in the investigative phase. Citing The Journal News, Andy Campbell writes:
Spears’ alleged deceit runs deep. The Journal News claims it uncovered a lie in which Spears claimed that she was the mother of a boy, Jonathon Strain, whom she was taking care of for a brief time. She reportedly posted a picture of the boy on her MySpace page, claiming she was his mother — and that’s when the boy’s real mother decided to move him to a new child care provider.
I went and looked [on the page.] And it was a picture of Jonathon,” said Jonathon’s mother, Autumn Hunt. “In a comment under the picture, someone wrote, ‘He’s so cute, is he yours?’ And Lacey replied, ‘Yes, he is. That’s the love of my life. He was born Feb. 14.’”
The nay-sayers also state that it’s unclear whether Garnett actually needed a feeding tube in the first place. Lacey has claimed that he had used it since birth, but people in Spears’ community have stated that they have seen the boy eat without the assistance of a feeding tube.
Maybe I’m naïve but the nature of chronic illnesses is that they alternately spike and then rescind and then spike again until the poor sick person is driven crazy, metaphorically speaking.
The investigation is being handled by the Westchester County District Attorney’s office, as well as local police and the Ramapo Police Department. Lucian Chalfen, a spokesperson for the D.A.’s office has told CBS News that “a shoe will drop” in a month or so.
* * * * *
I admit that the case against Lacey Spears could well have legs but I prefer to withhold judgment until all the evidence is in. If Lacey proves to be guilty, it will be interesting to see if some sort of “criminally not responsible” defense based on Munchhausen syndrome by proxy is put forward by her defense team.
If Lacey is ultimately convicted of first-degree-murder, she is fortunate in that although New York state has the Death Penalty on its books, it hasn’t actually executed anyone for decades, although presumably, it still could.
I doubt that Lacey would be a viable candidate for New York’s first death by legal injection. After all, she’s a famous blogger and the last thing we bloggers want is for one of us to die an agonizing death after having our veins infiltrated by a lethal combination of drugs. On the other hand, lethal infiltration may be precisely what she did to poor Garnett. But we don’t subscribe to “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth”, do we? Not here. Not in America.