The “mommy blogger” accused of fatally poisoning her 5-year-old son suggested to police the boy might have accidentally dosed himself.
Lacey Spears was indicted in June on second-degree depraved murder charges in the Jan. 23 death of her son, Garnett Spears, who died from acute sodium poisoning.
Her story attracted international attention because she had written about her son's health problems in blog posts and social media, and her friends and readers were shocked when investigators said Spears injected high doses of sodium into his gastric feeding bag.
Newly released court documents reveal Spears told police she was not to blame, reported The Journal News.
"If she gave the victim the wrong medications or if she mixed something that killed the victim, that it was not her fault because the medications were prescribed and that she did not murder the victim," prosecutors said Spears told police hours after her son died.
Prosecutors said Spears also told police her son "would once in a while play with his feeding tube and could have put something in it," the newspaper reported.
Investigators believe Spears may suffer from the rare psychological disorder, Munchausen syndrome by proxy, which causes parents to harm their children to gain attention and sympathy.
The cause of the disorder is unknown, but some researchers believe it may be triggered by abuse or neglect endured by the parent during childhood.
In court documents filed Friday, prosecutors indicated they believe Spears poured sodium chloride, or salt, into her son’s feeding tube over four days prior to his death, reported The Journal News.
Prosecutors said the child had shown extreme and life-threatening sodium levels when he was younger, but doctors could not explain why.
The boy had complained of stomach pains Jan. 18, a day after he was taken to Nyack Hospital, and his mother fed him formula through a tube and he drank several pitchers of water.
The child’s brain swelled and he became unresponsive two days before he died, investigators said.
Police said Spears spoke to them the night before her son was declared brain dead and "looked visibly distraught but showed no sign of tears."
She did not testify during six grand jury hearings in June.
Her attorneys have asked the court to dismiss charges against Spears for lack of evidence.
They have also asked the court to suppress statements she had made to police, but prosecutors said they should be admitted because Spears was not under arrest, did not refuse to answer any questions, and did not ask for an attorney.
Spears has come to be known as a "mommy blogger," although the majority of her writings about her son and his health were posted on social media rather than a blog or Twitter.
