Detective Says Doctor Admitted Planning Daughter's Murder

MORTON, ILLINOIS--A police detective said Wednesday that Katie McCarron's mother has admitted that she started thinking about murdering the three-year-old girl, who had autism, while playing with her on Saturday, May 13.

Dr. Karen McCarron had told investigators earlier that her daughter was "very stimmy" that day and would not take her nap, when she told her mother, Erna Frank, that she was taking the girl for a drive to calm her down. Instead, McCarron took the girl to Frank's house, where she placed a plastic garbage bag over her daughter's head until she stopped breathing.

McCarron has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder and is being held in jail on $1 million bond, which was reduced Wednesday from $2 million.

The Peoria Journal News reported that during the bond hearing, Morton Police Detective Ray Ham testified that police have recorded phone calls that McCarron made from jail since her May 16 arrest. On May 18, she reportedly told her mother that she was overwhelmed by Katie's autism.

Ham told the court that Frank responded, "You could have trusted me, you could have talked to me. There were other ways to deal with this."

McCarron's father-in-law, Michael McCarron, was reported Tuesday as saying the killing had nothing to do with autism, noting that Katie had been with her mother for less than two weeks after spending several months with her father and grandparents.

McCarron could face up to 100 years in prison if convicted.

Photographs of Katie have been made available for public use by her grandfather. Download yours here: Katie McCarron Photos

Initial news reports on Katie's murder
Daughter's murder puts focus on 'toll of autism' With a cautionary note by us on that "toll of autism" thing.
'This was not about autism', grandfather says Who Katie McCarron really was.
Katie's dad files for divorce, citing 'extreme mental cruelty'
Karen was described as 'lucid' and 'very calm'
'I wanted to take the autism out of her'
More analysis of the Journal-Star articles.
Murder of Autistics (Archive)

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