Terrible Crimes Committed by Mothers

Now that it is summer we are sadly seeing more and more stories popping up in the news about parents and caregivers leaving children in locked cars in scorching temperatures, many times resulting in the child’s death. Sadly, however, there are cases of child abuse and neglect in the news year round. Here are some cases of terrible crimes mothers have committed against their own children.

Catalina Clouser

In June 2012, 19 year old Catalina Clouser decided to take her five week old son along with her to a friend’s house to smoke some marijuana. While she was getting ready to leave her friend’s house, Clouser fastened her baby in his car seat and put him on top of her car. She then proceeded to drive away, forgetting one big thing: her five week old son was still on top of the car fastened into his car seat. It was reported that she drove over ten miles before she realized her child was not in the car. Luckily, neighbors saw the baby in the middle of an intersection after he fell from the top of the car. The car seat was damaged and scraped pretty badly, but there was no harm done to the child. While neighbors were speaking to police, the young mother, having remembered that she had forgotten her child, drove up. She was placed under arrest for child abuse and driving under the influence. To make matters even more despicable, Clouser’s boyfriend, and the baby’s father, was arrested earlier in the day for driving under the influence with the child in the car. They had been on the way to the store to get beer. The baby was taken into custody of Child Protective Services.

Laurie Lee Kelly

In 2012, 43 year old Laurie Lee Kelly decided that she needed to “make money.” While Kelly was a school instructional assistant at the time this crime took place, the work she told police she needed to do involved prostituting herself. Instead of hiring a babysitting to watch her child while she participated in illegal activities, she passed her six year old daughter off to two homeless men who were complete strangers, and paid them in beer. Witnesses say many people in the area took turns looking after the little girl. Kelly left the child for four hours to have sex for money. Witnesses taking care of the child reported Kelly to the proper authorities. When she was questioned later, she told police that she knew what she had done was wrong, but that she had an uncontrollable “manic sexual rage,” and “needed to have sex.” Luckily, the people Kelly left her children with were honest, and the girl was found unharmed.

Lacey Spears

In yet another story of a terrible crime committed by a mother, is the case of 26 year old Lacey Spears. From the moment her five year old son Garnett was born, the child had a mystery illness that could never be diagnosed. Spears, portraying the doting mother, created a blog for her child to record his frequent trips to the hospital, and even pictures of the child when he was gravely ill. One picture on the blog reportedly portrayed a picture of Garnett with blood pouring out of his nose. She received tons of attention and an outpouring of sympathy and support from readers of the blog. Sadly though, it was Spears who was causing her son’s illness. Spears is reported to have Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy, a mental illness women can be inflicted with, which results in them harming their child to gain attention. Sadly, this case had a tragic ending for five year old Garnet. In June of this year, the child died tragically as spears had been feeding him lethal amounts of salt to make him ill.

Jennifer Marie Vargas

In 2013, 34 year old Jennifer Marie Vargas, a Texas woman, took her rightful place in the list of mothers who commit terrible crimes. Vargas, who was living on a military base with her husband, a soldier in the Army, became angry at her son for reasons that are unknown. Instead of taking a minute to cool down, she reacted in a violent rage, assaulting her six year old son by grabbing and ripping his testicles as hard as she could in an attempt to rip them off, creating a deep cut roughly four centimeters long. She then applied superglue to the cut, stuffed his pants with paper towels and made him go to bed. The boy’s father returned home later and upon seeing the severe wound, promptly took the child to the hospital. The six year old boy had to have surgery to repair the damage done by his mother.

Of course, these are not the only cases of terrible crimes committed by mothers, and it is of course not just mothers being charged with child abuse and neglect. Sadly, sometimes the people children are supposed to rely on and trust the most are the ones that put them in the most danger. So, if you can, give your mom a great big hug for taking care of you, and hold your children a little tighter today as well.

Opinion By: Lauren DiDonato