May 19, 2006

Doctor Says She Killed Daughter To "End The Pain"

By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express (subscribe)

MORTON, IL--A 37-year-old physician has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder after allegedly confessing to suffocating to death her three-year-old daughter.

Karen McCarron, M.D., was arrested and jailed Tuesday, with her bond set at $2 million.

McCarron had called 9-1-1 Saturday afternoon from their Morton home, saying her daughter, Katherine, had suddenly stopped breathing. Rescue workers were not able to revive the girl, who was pronounced dead a short time later.

The county coroner told reporters on Monday that an autopsy found the preliminary cause of Katie's death was suffocation.

Later on Monday, according to a police affidavit, McCarron confessed to putting a white plastic bag over the girl's head and holding it until she died.

Police also said McCarron told her husband, Paul, that she killed their daughter to end both her pain and the girl's pain.

McCarron said the child, who was diagnosed with autism at age 2, was "very stimmy" on Saturday and would not take her afternoon nap. She packed up the girl and her two-year-old sister, and took them to a different house where she suffocated Katie. She then drove both girls back to their home, discarding the plastic bag in a gas station garbage can along the way.

Journal Star columnist Phil Luciano wrote Wednesday that he had spoken with McCarron just three weeks before her daughter's death.

"It makes no sense in any scenario, but particularly not here. Not in a nice neighborhood in Morton," Luciano wrote. "Not in a family of privilege. Not with a mother who is a physician, a person sworn to protect life."

According to the Peoria Tazewell Pathology Group's website, McCarron had been with the group since August 2001, specializing in dermatopathology, the study of the causes and nature of skin diseases.

Related:
"Morton woman accused of suffocating 3-year-old daughter" (Peoria Journal Star)

Affidavit of Probable Cause - PDF FILE (ITazewell County Court)

"Case doesn't make sense" (Peoria Journal Star)

Yet Another Murder (The Rettdevil's Rants - blog)

Dr. Karen McCarron (Peoria Tazewell Pathology Group)

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Posted on May 19, 2006