Colorado Mom Pleads Guilty to Daughter’s Death

(RepublicanDaily.org) – Munchausen’s syndrome is a psychological condition that causes sufferers to fake illness, sometimes to the extent that they exhibit symptoms of a given condition without any underlying physical cause. Though it’s difficult to say exactly what happened at this stage, it looks like a version of this condition might have been at play in the tragic 2017 death of a Colorado girl.

On Monday, January 3, Kelly Turner pleaded guilty to three charges related to the death of her 7-year-old daughter Olivia Gant in 2017, including one of felony child abuse negligently causing death. Prosecutors agreed to dismiss a charge of murder, among others, under the terms of the plea deal.

Turner had fraudulently claimed her daughter suffered from a series of illnesses, including a seizure disorder. After doctors carried out an autopsy on the child’s remains in 2018, they reported she did not have any terminal physical condition of the sorts her mother described during her life.

In order to convince others that Olivia was sick, Kelly reportedly withheld food and nutrition from her own daughter, leading to such horrors as unnecessary hospital stays and feeding tubes to propagate the fraud. In the weeks before her death, Kelly also withheld medical care that may have saved her life.

Gant’s supposed illnesses made her well-known in the Denver, Colorado area where she lived. Local media outlets reported on her case, and police and fire crews let her go on ride-alongs. She was even granted a wish by the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

A Colorado mother who claimed her daughter had multiple illnesses has now been indicted in the seven-year-old's 2017 death; Kelly Renee Turner, 41, has been charged with 13 criminal counts that also included child abuse, theft and charitable fraud https://t.co/TOIANNek3f pic.twitter.com/SEAVi8sFSI

— CBS Evening News (@CBSEveningNews) October 22, 2019