Rotten Mango - #93: The Mommy Blogger Killer (Case of Lacey Spears)

Episode Date: September 1, 2021

She was rushing to the emergency room - her 5-year-old son was in the back. Every minute could mean life or death. He had been having seizures all day.  But before entering the hospital she stood over her suffering son and took a picture. What would she caption this one? Maybe she would mention how this was going to be his 13th surgery. Yeah, that would be good. The followers would eat that up.  Book Rec: “My Sweet Angel” - by John Glatt (Such a great deep dive on this case) Full Source Notes: rottenmangopodcast.com To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Listen, it doesn't matter who you are or what you have, because life can be pretty damn hard, and without a healthy mind, it's even harder. So check out online therapy with betterhelp.com slash rotten, and be on your way to a little bit more ease. Better being better boom. Welcome to this week's main episode of Rotten Mingo. I'm your host Stephanie Sue. Wow, that feels so professional. And I'm just going to drop you right into the crime because today I was originally supposed to be talking about Kim Jong Il, yeah North Korea, but I'm going to save that for any sort.

Yeah, we're talking about this because I somehow just got so dragged deep into this like a couple days ago And I just need to talk about it. She was on her way rushing to the hospital her sick five-year-old son was in the back He's having seizures again. He's not eating. He has to be fed through his feeding tube things are not looking good This is a rough time for this five-year-old little boy. She starts weaving through the traffic. Come on, come on, I have to get to the emergency room. Finally, she gets there, parks her car, rushes to the car seat in the back, and before taking her son out and rushing to get medical help, like you would assume. She takes out her phone and starts taking pictures of him in his car seat.

And she's thinking to herself, well, which should I say about this one? It's his 33rd visit to the hospital. He's been airlifted twice. He's had 12 surgeries and we're still back at the hospital. Please pray for us. And Garnet, the great, we need your prayers right now. Yeah, that's a good one. That's a good caption.

Her followers might like that one. Wait, she's making an Instagram post a Facebook post Welcome to the mommy blogger killer. Oh Yeah full source notes are available at rottonmangopodcast.com as always But yes, there's a book. It's called my sweet angel by I say this every time But like why do I have so many favorites one of my favorite true crime authors of all time by John Glad he also has the secrets and the seller that I read for the Joseph Fritzel case

So good there's a lot of documentaries on this but I recommend the book because even John Glad gets interviewed for a lot of these documentaries and I'm like that's my boy John He has no idea that I exist. Okay. It's so detailed There's so many interviews done with people that Lacey knew growing up And it just I mean you get an in-depth picture of who these people really are So let's talk about Lacey Elizabeth Spears born in California at Castle Air Force base Her mom's name is Tina her dad's name is Terry and she's the youngest of three kids So when you look at this family from the outside, I mean it just looks like a a cute little Air Force family. I don't know what else to say, but they

decide after she's born, let's pack it up. Let's pack up all our stuff and move to Alabama. From California to Alabama, it's going to be great. So they moved to Decatur, Alabama, which at the time was one of the poorest towns in America. I mean, you're talking typical southern Bible belt town. They've got a tiny population. They've got more churches than there are people to attend them. There's a church on every street corner. What do you do for fun? I go to church.

What do you do when you're not doing that? I still go to church. Like, that's the vibe there, right? Nothing wrong with it, but it is the vibe. Now, they move into the Grandparents Ranch, and it's given main character vibes. You're thinking, wow, they're running round into the sunset. What an amazing special childhood but the whole

family seemed a little bit miserable. The Spears parents were described as being quote unquote not close like I don't know what that means but that's like the worst thing you could say about a married couple. The dad was busy with all of his health concerns he had celiac disease, Crohn's disease which is like a like a chronic inflammatory bowel disease essentially. It affects the lining of your digestive tract. So the mom, she had type 1 diabetes.

They both had health concerns. Now they just did not get along with each other and the kids, especially Tina, the mom. Everyone called her a cold, unaffectionate woman with her children. All three of her kids. So Lacey, the youngest with her children. All three of her kids. So Lacey, the youngest, from when she spends most of her time by herself,

her older brother and sister, they're like, we're too cool for you. Are you kidding me? We're teenagers, you're a loser, go play on your room. So she starts collecting these American girl dolls. These are her substitute family. Now she takes it a little step far because she wakes up every morning.

Gotta brush their hair. Each one has to be individually dressed, got to be different from what they were wearing yesterday, and then she'll pick one to take out for the day. How old is she? She's like seven. Yeah, so that's normal, right? Like she's 27. She would treat them like they were real people, like they were her children.

I mean, I remember doing this when I was young, right? Yeah. Now, one of the girls at Lacey's school really wanted to have a sleepover. Mom mom please like can I just sleep over at Lacey's like it's gonna be so much fun she has so many dolls you have to see. But for some reason this kid's mom was like something just feels wrong about the Spirys family. I don't know. Something just rubs me the wrong way. But she keeps begging no mom like you're just being paranoid please. Okay fine. She had no idea that the sleepover was just gonna go horribly. The two girls are in Lacey's room playing with the dolls

and this kid, she decides to pick up one of Lacey's dolls. Cause I mean, she's just playing. She's not whacking it around. She's not like, I'm gonna take this one. She just picks it up and they's enraged Lacey so much. She jumps on top of the other girl and full on try to strangle her. When I say full on, to strangle her. When I say

full on I'm talking both hands, both hands around the neck strangle when her parents come to pick her up from Lacey's there were handprints and bruising on her neck. Why was she so triggered? I guess she just doesn't like sharing. I guess these are her babies don't touch her baby. Is she treating those like real kids. Yeah So it's you know you're getting some weird bizarre behavior from the get go I mean that was just how aggressive Lacey was with her dolls then on her 12th birthday. Guess what? She shows up at school. She pulls her very close friend aside. Hey, I need to talk to you It's time to start playing with dolls. It's time we grow up Okay, like very formal. Okay, you're 12. What's going on?

So she stops playing with her dolls and she becomes the ultimate teacher's pet. Like really a teacher's pet. She wants to hand in all her work early. The type of one that would raise her hand and say, wait, Mrs. Sue, did you check the homework? Like, it's like why would you ask ask that I didn't do my freaking homework with Ron with you? So it all sounds like, well, this girl's weird, she's eccentric, but everything's gonna go well

for her, right? Then she shows up at her best friend's house one day, sobbing. Jessica, that's the friend's day. Her friend's parents are like, what's going on? Lacey, what's wrong? I'm scared to go home. I'm being molested by a family member.

Now Jessica's parents immediately call CPS, but there is no investigation. I mean just nothing. So the family decides, well we're gonna open our doors to you Lacey. Whatever you need, whenever you don't wanna be home, you're welcome to stay here. You can be here at any time,

you can sleep over at any time that you want. She even started to call Jessica's mom, mom. Now a lot of the Spears family, they will refute this claim that she said that she was abused. Even a lot of the family friends don't believe it, even the people that she told that believed it in the moment later changed their minds and you'll see why, but I just need a preface that. Now Lazy would continue to go to church, join community volunteer teams the whole time. It seemed like she was looking for someone.

She would befriend women in their 40s and just her call in the mom like imagine if I went to church and I saw a 40-year-old woman and I'm like mom I did it And I said be like mom how's your sleep last night would you do this week and mom? They'd be like what's going on? But you have a mom. I mean they were all uncomfortable because it's like it's not like your mom died It's not like you don't have a mom like you have a mom. They didn't volunteer to be no Well, mom either a lot of them said it made them incredibly uncomfortable. They didn't know what to do with this You know can you imagine I would be uncomfortable if someone just started calling me mom I'm kidding so many people do that on the internet and I'm like have I really gotten that old?

Not only that but Lacey would do this thing where she would tell you a crazy story. And she would just deem it to be true. If there was a reaction from you, she would just add another lie on top of it. She would start building this little pile of lies, this crazy pile, big mountain of lies, add another one, add another one until the story is so ridiculous that you don't even know what to say. So she's a crazy liar. Yeah, I imagine it to go something like this. If she wanted you to feel sad, she'd say, well, it's sick last week. I went to the hospital. You're still not reacting. You're just like, oh, okay.

Glad you're feeling better. They said it might be the common flu. Oh, yeah, I heard that's going around. Maybe cancer. They said that. Cancer. They also said I have two days to live. Two days to live.

But I don't know the truth yet. Oh. Wait, sorry, actually, they called my mom last night and they said that I'm gonna die tonight. Like, that's how I imagined this to happen because she just piles it on. So, for example, here's what she said to someone. They said, how did you hurt your arm? Lazy, what's going on? Mm-hmm.

Oh, cheerleading. Oh, you poor thing. Actually, I'm enorexic and I collapsed in the middle of the street from lack of food. Don't tell anyone. Oh what? I actually haven't eaten anything in the past three days. What? Then another person chimed in. But I saw you eating a hot dog last night. Well other than that, I have an eaten a single thing. Oh, uh, okay. Strange.

Yeah, other than three meals a day, I haven't ate my tea either. Other than three meals, two snacks, and a cup of coffee in the morning, I really have not touched a single piece of food. You know, and I think, like, every unit, this is like a slap in the face for people with eating disorders, because it was was it was just blatant It wasn't like she was genuinely struggling with it. That's what how people picked up on it You know, it just it didn't seem like she's struggling but lying and calling out for help You think she's like lacking love at home or something maybe lacking attention

So she's seeking attention for these people. It seems like she's just obsessed with attention Just desperate for it like the type of person that even negative attention is good attention. Yeah. But she doesn't necessarily want to go that far. You'll see. She wants a very praiseful attention. Very sympathetic, almost like pity.

That's what she wants. So she tells everyone, hey everyone, I'm pregnant. What? You haven't even started high school yet. What are you gonna do? We're literally starting high school in a couple of months. How can you be pregnant? Yeah, I don't know.

Then she'd come into school the next day. Well, I got an abortion, out of nearby clinic. Now, one of the girls, I don't know, maybe her mom was there. She's like, but that specific clinic doesn't even do abortions. I got it done in Florida. Like, she would just kind of think when you was so blatant, she'd add no shame! What was even more confusing is that they had never seen her once with a guy. Lacey just never even had a schoolboy crush like the rest of the kids at her age.

She just seemed completely uninterested in any romantic partners of any gender. Just not into it. So, throughout high school, people had mixed emotions about her teachers' love to her. She's got potential. She's a perfectionist. She always turns her work in and time never causes problems. And the kids, they either adored her, felt bad for her, or thought that she was strange. To me she strikes me as someone who just kind of overshares.

So she would tell everyone how her dad had to live her transplant. She hates her sister and her mom. She was molested by family members all the time. and it just became this common knowledge at high school. So people just didn't know how to feel about it. Like is that true? I mean, I don't just don't understand. So she wants to be a mom more than anything. She keeps talking, telling everyone, I'm gonna be a mom. I'm gonna be the best mom ever, which just seems so natural for her to volunteer at a local church nursery. So she's in charge of looking after the infants, loves it. Instantly falls in love with a one-year-old named Charlie.

It got so strange that Charlie's parents walked in one day and said, I need you guys to never let Lacey look after our son Charlie. We don't like this attachment that she's building. We're just, we're uncomfortable. They didn't question it. They kept Lacey and they moved on so after graduating high school Is that she then moves into an apartment with her older sister Rebecca starts working at the kids club indicator Her bosses loved her. I mean she's she's got five kids at once Absolute beast never complains. I mean like in a good way, she's like never complains, loves her job. She would work 12 hours shifts no question.

Wait, who got five kids? No, she'd be like watching at the nursery, the daycare that she's working at. She comes in, opens, watches five kids, at the same time, then closes and leaves. Like this is her obsession, it's her passion. She's always there. This is her passion in life. So people would keep telling her, well why don't you try dating? Like this is her obsession, it's her passion. She's always there, this is her passion in life. So people would keep telling her, well why don't you try dating? Like now that you found your career path,

the next thing is to settle down and to like meet someone cute, have fun. They say like, what's going on? I know this guy named Blake, he's a handsome dude, he's a cop, you know? You're like a man in uniform, right? So she starts dating him, goes on a few dates, three to be exact.

They never have sex, this is important later, and then one day out of nowhere, Lacey just starts screaming at him at the checkout line of a grocery store. I mean, I don't know what it was about. I couldn't find that detail anywhere. She just starts blowing up on him. I mean, how can you genuinely scream at someone like that after three dates? Scream about what? Nobody knows, really. Just starts blowing up on the dude, walks out, they never see each other again. She never told her friends why they broke up either. It was just bizarre. People were like, why, you such a catch.

So she starts just, you know, really putting herself into that nursery and that's when she meets a young mom named Kristi Burnham. She had her baby boy named Cameron when she was 17 so she was struggling a little bit trying to balance work school parenting and Lacey came in and just swooped both of them off their feet. I can give you a family discount. All babies at your kid. No big deal. I work at a daycare. I know how kids are. I've got an emergency kit. Like I got it on lockdown. I mean this is really comforting. I'm sure for a lot of parents because this is the person that you're trusting your baby with and if they work full time at a daycare sound stellar. And Lacey is so sweet she's buying baby diapers. She even bought a car seat. I bought my sister a car seat for her baby shower. Those things are expensive,

okay. Buies a car seat. A full on crib. Never wants us to be reimbursed. Just out of her own free will just buying this stuff. So she loves babies? Yeah. Like genuinely just loves babies? Well, we'll see if it's love. I mean, I don't know. What is it? So Christie starts noticing something strange. Anytime that she would go to pick up Cameron, her own son, Lacey seemed pissed, resentful almost annoyed. So she's thinking, oh man, she's probably upset. You know, trying to watch the kids all day. Is it because I don't pay her enough? I wonder if that's what it is. So then Christy takes her son to the park one day. She's like, I'm not gonna have Lacy watching. I'm gonna watch him today.

Then a woman comes up to her. Oh my god! Are you Lacy's babysitter? What? Are you watching Lacey's kid? You're her baby sitter? What? Cameron? That one? That's my kid. She's my baby sitter.

Oh! That's so strange, because we could have all sworn that she told us that that was her baby. What? Now, Chris didn't get that strange, okay? That's very, very strange, but maybe it's all in misunderstanding. Maybe, you know, they were like, Oh, your kid's so pretty and she just kind of nodded

because to go down the hole, oh, that's not my kid, I'm actually just, you know, it's like exhausting. So maybe she just nodded. So, Christy doesn't think much of it. Besides, she had bigger things to worry about. Cameron had recently suffered from these massive ear infections. Always going to the doctor. So strange.

He never had this problem before. Then one day after babysitting, Lacey never dropped off camera again. Okay, Christie's freaking out a little bit, but that's fine. Maybe they're getting food, maybe they're running late. The next straight rolls around. Okay, maybe I was wrong, maybe she's watching him the whole weekend. The mom's like, my kid didn't come home today and let me wait till tomorrow. I mean, she's kind of confused, like maybe Lacey was supposed to watch her

the whole weekend because sometimes she does that. Then Monday rolls around, still no contact with Lacey. Like she's been trying to get in contact with Lacey this whole time and she starts kind of freaking out, calling all of their friends, maybe, maybe she just, you know, forgot the time. She's's it's Lacey. It's nothing to worry about. We're practically sisters at this point. Calls all their friends. No I haven't seen Lacey. No I haven't heard from her all day. So she finally is able to track down Lacey and straight up

tells her bring him home immediately or I'll sell beach your ass. I kind of love her okay. And when she does, she takes her son from Lacey and says, you're never going to watch him ever again. And she starts sobbing. Please don't take him away from me. Please don't do this. Now, Christie's thinking, oh man, this is going to be a rough, a rough breakup. I'm gonna have to, gotta maybe get a restraining order. This is a little creepy. She's gonna stalk us or something, but Lacey moved on quick to another child, a six-month-old boy by the name of Jonathan. His mom was a hardworking 19-year-old and Lacey offered, hey, why don't I just watch him family discount? I'm gonna, you know, watch him basically for free.

She had the experience, the expertise, Autumn was like, yeah, take my son, Jonathan, what is there not to love about this daycare employee? Lacey starts calling him John-John. Stop asking for payment from Autumn. So was babysitting him for completely free, but would buy four-minute diapers, toys. I mean, she was so sweet, she was so good with kids.

Then the question's got too much. How does she even affordable this? The diapers, the baby wipes, I mean she was so sweet she was so good with kids then the questions got too much How does she even affordable this the diapers the baby wipes? I mean these aren't cheap She would take John to the local churches pretending to be his mom to get free donations From the church. Yeah Okay, so really you know bad because Usually reserved for moms who need it for their kids. Just bizarre, but I mean, I guess it's not like we can't really hate her, because she is using it for a kid, right? And she can't necessarily afford it.

That's how everyone feels about this. Autumn's like, okay, that's a little weird. But I don't know if I'm like shutting my door in her face yet. Mm-hmm. But she had no idea that Lacey had been posting hundreds of pictures of her and John-John pretending to be his mom on Facebook. There would be a picture of John and the caption would say, hey mommy Lacey or what you do and mommy Lacey pretending to be John's voice, you know? How old is John again?

Six months old. What? Yeah, sometimes she would post pictures of him and write, I love you, you are my world, my everything, you complete me. Listen, I got a niece, and I don't even know if I would write that about her. Not saying I don't love her, but it just feels like a very mother to child thing. Yeah, yeah. You know, I love you, you're my world. So everyone just kind of assumed, like, oh my god, I didn't know you had a kid already?

Yes, that's the love of my life, he was born February 14th. Okay, Lacey, very aggressive. She would take John-John to football games, and if she ran into these old high school friends, she would say, oh, me, me, little boy, John-John. Now, these kids they knew hers. They never saw her date. So they started asking questions.

When did you give birth? Like, what? I follow you on Facebook. I didn't even know you were pregnant. When did you get pregnant? Who's the dad? Do we know them? I mean, this is small town. We should probably know him, right? From high school. What's that black guy?

No, um... It's actually my sister's kid. Oh. That's weird. Why didn't you just say that? And she would just walk away. And again, Autumn didn't know. She had bigger concerns. When she later did find out, she said that she was so shocked but assumed that Lise was doing it for attention because if you're a young mom on Facebook, you get a lot of sympathy, you get a lot of love.

But like I said, shit other concerns. That John's ears were leaking pus. Yet nasty ear infections, he had these constant ones. When both of his ears, it just seemed like it was never going away. Stressing out the whole family. They even found a hole in his ear drum. So she's freaking out. She's busy. She doesn't have time to be stalking Lacey's Facebook.

She's just a stressed mom. Now there was another kid in Lacey's circle that started having really bad ear infections as well. Shana Lynch's son by the name of McKelley. Just really nasty. She would drop off her kids to be with Lacey and John-John when she's working. They'd become really close.

Shana even gave Lacey a set of keys into her place, and Shana really liked her, trusted her, felt bad for her even. After all that she's been through, the fact that she was molested from multiple family members, the fact that her fiance, Blake, the policeman, had been killed tragically in a car accident on the line of duty. I

mean they were high school sweethearts, they were soulmates for crying out loud. Lacey's just had such a hard life. So of course, Shauna sympathizes with her and trusts her. My fiance's grandpa is actually starting up his own small business. Yes, he's going to be shipping art prints to whoever wants them and he's kind of working out the logistics, right? He's thinking, well, I don't have a car. I can't drive places.

I don't know what to do. How am I going to run this business? Would I don't leave the house and I told him, Gramps, I got you. Well, I told my fiance to translate because he doesn't speak English. I said stamps.com saves businesses thousands of hours and tons of money every single year. Listen, the hassle of going to the post office is no more because stamps.com brings that same US postal and UPS shipping services right to your computer. They make it easy for small businesses to mail and ship without ever needing to take

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No long-term commitments or contracts. Just go to stamps.com, click on the microphone at the top of the homepage and type in Rotten. That's stamps.com promo code Rotten. Stamps.com never go to the post office again Now Shana's mother-in-law did not she did not approve of this friendship. She said listen I've seen Lacey with McKelley. I just feel like something's not right. She seems obsessed with them There's something deep there a darkness. I just don't know what it is So she keeps telling Shana this she's just so invasive the time. I ask her questions and she's just so...

Her answers are so clinical. Listen, Shana. Just try one thing for me, okay? I'm gonna stop nagging you. Just do this one thing. Take the key away from her. Tell her it's a family reason. You're working on your marriage. Your husband's upset that you're just given away keys You know, he's very security conscious. She should react normally most friends would they'd be like oh, sorry Okay, yeah, of course they totally get it so Sean is it's lacy down listen my husband and I were kind of fighting about how We don't really have personal space is it okay?

Just for the time being if I get our house key back I just need to focus on my marriage right now Okay, just for the time being, if I get our house key back, I just need to focus on my marriage right now. Obviously, like this doesn't affect our friendship, we can hang out still all the time. I just, you can knock on the door, I just want my key back. And Lacey stands up, starts screaming at her. You betrayed me. What is your problem?

Like, you've just turned into a completely different person, like, fork you, Shana. Okay, imagine. So she's like, what the fork. Okay, imagine. So she's like, what the fork? They stop talking. Now Lacey is considered strange to a lot of people, even the people in her apartment picked up on it. So there's this guy, a 23 year old named Chris Hill. Living on the ground floor of the apartment sees Lacey a lot.

Her friends would actually call her the predator. Because she was just cold, mean, and always with kids. They were like half joking, you know. Why predator? Oh, praying on kids? Yeah, just like a weird, I guess. Okay. So one day there's a knock on the door. It's Lacey.

Hey Chris, can you help me um, assemble this new baby crib that I have? Uh, sure. So they start building this bed together and one thing leads to another and they do it. Oh yeah, they do it. Yeah, we'll turn, okay. Twist and turns in this one. So Lacey starts coming over, never dating. Just would watch a movie, have sex, never went out together, never slept together. I mean, all of it was just so strange for Chris. Chris never thought to even use contraceptives

and she never brought it up. Just assumed she's probably on the pill, but there was a strange detail that he couldn't get over. She loved kids, but she did not care for his five-year-old. So he's got this five-year-old, but whenever the kid is around, Lazy would blatantly ignore the kid. Like what?

What? Yeah. Then there would be other strange incidents in their relationship she would text him. Hey, come upstairs, winky face. Oh, he's ready. He's spraying cologne, you know? Open up his pants. Spraying cologne down there too.

He's getting lucky tonight, right? So the neat clothes upstairs knocks on the door excited. He can see her shadow through the people. And like, you know what, the bottom, you You can see like, kind of, there's movement. Here's her footsteps. Someone's there, but no one's opening the door. So he says, Lacey, is that you? You just texted me to come up here and meet you.

Never responded, but she's just there watching him. Why? He doesn't know. What do you think the reason behind that? Just a weird dude or weird girl. Yeah, I think maybe she wants to see if he'll come. Or just wants to look at him. Okay, I don't know. Listen, I haven't dated in so long.

I'm like, is this some sort of new dating tactic? We're dating. We're dating. Are we dating? We're dating after 7 and a half years. We're still dating. We're actually on a date right now. We're still in sync. So Lacey Spheres ends up getting pregnant.

Oh yeah, she gets pregnant. She's so excited. She took 23 tests. They're all positive. Oh my god. Like she stoked and everyone's like, well, who's the dad? And she said, and I quote, that older fat bald guy downstairs. It's just really like-

Chris Hill? Yeah, like what the fork? Okay, just weird. So people are thrown off by that. She told Chris and they both decided to try and make it work like a couple. Maybe we'll get narried, but Chris claims that one day he brought her a book of baby names.

He's stoked, he's excited. They start going through it together. He says, what about Kaden? I love the name Kaden. Oh, I love it too. Then the next day, she comes up to him and says, well, I want it to be Karnat. Oh, I thought we decided on Kaden. I don't really like that name.

Well, I don't care. OK, well, I guess we can just sleep on it or maybe there will be another name that comes up that we both like. The next day she texts him, you're not the father of my child. It's actually my ex-boyfriends kid Blake's and I never want to see you again. So she he's confused like this makes him feel like it's still his child she just doesn't want him to have any say in any of this. So he starts texting her, going up to her apartment and she, I mean it's the strangest break up ever he said.

She just refused to talk to him, threatened to call the cops the whole time. Nothing could not get through to her. So years later the Spears sisters would say that Chris was actually abusive and they didn't want him around the future baby, but I don't really know. They had these massive baby showers told everyone is the baby of a policeman named Blake. The ones that didn't believe her, they just never questioned her in person because it's kind of a sensitive topic. You're not gonna be like, are you sure?

Who is the baby daddy? Do a paternity test. So then, her first child is born. Garnet, Paul Thompson, Spears. Very cute. Very cute baby. Six pounds and a wonderful, healthy baby. Within minutes of him popping out, she posts a pic of him on Facebook. With the caption,

labor'd only four hours and my blessing is here. He's all mine. Then another one, right before all my fans come to see me and mommy, so she likes to pretend like she's the kid talking. You know, like a- Did she have a lot of fans or something? No. Oh, okay. Yeah, I mean, it's really just for her friends.

Then it gets weirder because she ends up having like four different Facebook accounts and they become like fan accounts almost. Yeah, it gets weirder, it gets weirder. So within days, she was discharged from her, you know, from the hospital with the baby and both mom and baby, very healthy, everything's looking good, that's on a Friday. But by the time Sunday rolls around, they couldn't even get through the whole weekend, they're back in the hospital emergency room. My baby's got a high fever, he's only two days old. He's pulling at his ears. What do I do?

I just checked his fever. It's like 105 degrees. Okay, new mom, new mom. It's like, hey, calm down. Let's, you know, run his temperature. Normal. Okay, let's run some tests. Completely normal. Okay, it's okay, mom. Like, you're, you're probably lack of sleep. You're probably really paranoid. This your precious bean finally comes alive, right? You guys are good go back home She goes home. She starts casually posting pictures of John John and Garnett together Big bro and little bro. He loves him so much She would buy them identical clothes to match in brothers and best friends me and my babies

Then she went back to the yard. Oh, no, he's sick again Brother's and best friends, me and my babies. Then she went back to the ER. Oh no, he's sick again! Okay, well let's, you know, run some tests. They hook him up to an IV and she takes a picture. Poor baby boy, see his IV, my entire world, he is my life. Soon this became a pattern. Almost daily, she would bring Garnet into the hospital, demand

doctors to make sure nothing's wrong with him while snapping and posting pictures on Facebook. I'm sorry, she's like using this as a photo op. A photo destination. The hospital is the pink wall for her. And what are people saying? Do people care? People's like, oh my gosh. Like should we get like four comments being like, oh no, like praying for Garnet. You're such an amazing mom, Lacey. And this is all she wanted. Yeah. Yeah.

Back to the hospital. He's not eating properly. He's bleeding out of his ears. You got to help me. The doctor would actually write in the medical record that he suspected Lacey Spears to be suffering from Munchaus and syndrome by proxy. You guys know this, gypsy rows, you know, all of these people that's essentially when a caregiver or a parent,

they deliberately try to poison the child so that they can seem like this caring sympathetic mom, like, oh my god, you must be, it must be so hard on you. How are you doing this? You're like a superhero. You're the best mom ever. I could never never you're so brave, you know, and It's just they were concerned they called packed which is the parental assistance agency to prevent child abuse Now during the interview that they had with Lacey Strangely they realized that lacy barely paid attention to the son that was in the room with them There would be follow-up calls and appointments, but Lacey just didn't pick up or show up.

So they just closed the case. They're like, okay, well, she's not getting in contact, so she must be a really good mom. Yeah, that makes sense. So meanwhile, Lacey continues to show up at the hospital. You need to help me. He's only six weeks old. He keeps throwing up.

He's projectile vomiting. Vomiting everywhere. He refuses to eat. This is my baby. What do I do? They see the previous doctor's notes. He's projectile vomiting, vomiting everywhere. He refuses to eat. This is my baby. What do I do? They see the previous doctor's notes. Okay.

Why don't we not tell mom? But let's quarantine them. So we take our net for 24 hours and we make up a lie that no visitors allowed. See if he's projectile vomiting, see if he refuses to eat. If not, maybe it's the caregiver's fault. And sure enough, he wasn't throwing up.

But they couldn't really say for sure is because of Lacey and they were discharged right back to Lacey. She starts reaching out to friends. I can't handle the stress right now. They would take her out to lunch and she would be crying about how sick her baby is. He's there by the way at lunch. Chick-fil-A, specifically. Okay, she'd be like crying.

And just like he's so sick. Meanwhile, Garnet, he would interrupt the conversation and she would smack him on the leg. She would smack the baby on the leg. Yeah, like she was just in the middle of a conversation of how she's so upset that her baby has health conditions. And it's been so stressful. And then he would start crying

and she would just kind of like smack him on the leg, like shout out mommy's talking And the friends would be like what? Shirt out and wait he's acting out There was an instance where a friend saw Lacey scream me at Garnet in the Walmart parking lot called CPS and they still didn't do anything And here's the crazy thing because she kept saying my baby keeps throwing up He was losing weight, he was losing weight and he was losing a lot of weight.

He was malnourished. The doctors underwent a, I'm not going to say this right, I want to say Nissan, it's not a Nissan A, nice and fun dope location procedure. Essentially it's a procedure that makes it that you can never vomit again. It's a diagnosed reflex disease, so it has something to do with your esophagus and your stomach and they just kind of like tie it up so that you can't vomit or burp a lot. So a lot of people with severe, like I'm talking debilitating acid reflex, like they need stuff like this, they'll get this procedure.

It's just not something that you should do unless you're dealing with something that's just not as bad. Because the idea to me of never throwing up is terrifying. What if you ate something bad? Your body is naturally trying to protect you by getting rid of it, right? Like you feel sick, you feel after you throw up, you feel better. So after doing that procedure, Lacey still has complaints. Her son can never throw up again, really.

Garnet refuses to eat. Please, we gotta do something. So they place a, you know, feeding tube in his nose. She takes a couple pictures. He had to get a feeding tube. That's how we ate for weeks. He's only two months old. My poor Garnet.

Once he was released, she came back and complained again. He's still not eating. They checked his levels, his sodium levels, and it was at 180. A normal blood sodium level is 135 to 145. If it's too high or too low, it can be fatal. Did you know sodium is that finicky inside of your body? So one of the biggest dangers is brain damage. If you have too much sodium, that sodium could travel to the water that's in your brain

cells, cause it to swell, and that will cause inflammation in your brain, and your brain really has nowhere else to go when it's getting inflamed instead of just crushing inside of your own school. It causes a lot of brain damage if it's bad, like this is really, really bad. So I mean- So the baby consumed a ton of sodium? Yeah, or maybe they were dehydrated. You know, maybe there's not enough water in the baby. Like, it was just, it was bizarre. So he's airlifted to

a children's hospital. And thankfully, his sodium levels were monitors safely dropped. You can't just force it down, by the way. It has to be just slowly controlled. So she's in the hospital for a really long time with him. Just posting pictures. Now here's what's interesting about the Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy these days, is that it's getting worse. So it's a psychiatrist by the name of Dr. Feldman had a book on it, and it's essentially when a lot of people

want to post about them, or there are loved ones being sick, because it gives them like this, it gives them this like high. Of all these real-time people reacting and sympathizing and, you know, being like, oh my poor baby. So because of the rise of internet support groups for medical illnesses, which by the way offers patients the ability to like share their struggles, feel less alone, more connected, related. There's a deep level of love that shared between straight up strangers and it's a beautiful thing Yeah, but a lot of the times people will infiltrate it and lie

That makes sense Because it's the internet it's somewhat anonymous you get instant reactions and People aren't right in front of your face So a lot of the times it might be safer for you to test the waters on the internet before you start lying to people in person Exactly. Wow. Wild. So the whole time Lacey is just blogging it. The whole experience on Facebook posting a ton of pictures. He was very sick. We didn't know it. I don't feel good, mommy. It's just strange. Like, a lot of these pictures were gory too. Like imagine a kid with feeding tubes in his nose.

And like I get it, I totally sympathize with parents. You post a couple here and there, giving your, you know, just your family updates, or just like we're going strong, like these milestones, but it was just a lot of pictures. Like so many pictures, like why, what, why do we need to see like a whole collage of this? It was just a lot.

Now the doctors keep him for two weeks. They didn't understand. He's not having him for two weeks. They didn't understand. He's not having any problems with food. They can't find out why the sodium levels are too high. There's no medical reason. He was completely fine medically, genetically, and metabolically. Doesn't make sense. How are you feeding him, mom?

Well, the doctors at the last place told me to do one part formula, half strength, with three parts water. The doctors at the last place told me to do one part formula, half strength with three parts water. And all the doctors are shocked. That's like malnutrition. You're not supposed to dilute half strength formula that much for this age. Like that's, don't do that. So regardless, CPS is contacted and they were discharged from the hospital.

But before they left, of course, she took another picture of him sleeping, knocked out and on pain meds. My little man had to be sick again. Poor baby boy. I feel like at that point, some people just got to find some pattern, like, but like, here's the thing. Even if we were seeing this in real time, that 10% chance that it's the truth, I mean, that would just destroy them. Can you imagine accusing a genuinely loving caring mother of being a shitty parent? Yeah, okay.

So I think that's why it's so hard. But all these doctors are calling CPS. Yeah, and CPS is doing nothing. Nothing. Once again. Yeah, once again. So all of her friends reach out, oh my god, I saw your Facebook,

is he okay? It's going to get nut, okay? Let me me let's take you out for lunch and they saw the strangest thing They all met up at a Mexican restaurant and Lacey was feeding her son Super spicy hot salsa They're like wait what like you just told us that he has this procedure done that he can't throw up You say and he's like what a few months old. You say he's like a few months old? Yeah, he's like less than a year old, and you're just feeding him salsa right now. What?

Then Lacey starts visiting another hospital. He was having these bloody infections. And at the same time, she would say, and he keeps throwing up, he can't keep food down. What do I do? Okay, well, let's monitor him. So they admit him into the hospital and should call the nurses call button He threw up he threw up he threw up so they rush in and there are stains on the bed

But it's water stains. It's not throw up. There's no clumps. There's nothing First of all, it's like impossible for him to throw up second of all. That's literally water lazy Yeah, and she just would not even look at them she wouldn't even acknowledge their comment okay that's weird so then they would just leave the room at one point the air infections got so bad that there was so much pus coming out that doctors had to put full on towels under his ears to catch it it was bad they don't know why no they just thought it was suspicious, so they kept calling CPS, they kept putting in in their notes. This is not normal, this is very abnormal,

but nothing was being done. So she kept going from hospital, hospital, even in Florida, where her grandparents relocated, she would visit them, and she would go to all these places, all these doctors, my son's not eating, he needs a G-Tube. So a So a G tube is a feeding tube that is attached to his stomach All the doctors kept saying I've evaluated him. I've seen him take down food He's he's fine. I don't think he needs it If I'm not doing that if he doesn't need it like this is really a traumatic experience He could eat anything fried okra mashed potatoes. He's like a couple years old at this point He loves to eat keeps keeps it all down.

For whatever reason, on September 1st, she found a doctor who would do it. And they place a small, one and a half inch plastic tube into his stomach. No way. And right when he gets wheeled out of that operation room, she takes a picture. Mommy, I feel bad and my belly hurts. Is the caption. It's the tube like attached right in front of the stomach, right? Yeah, it's like a little opening, it's a port,

and once you open it, you attach a connector tube, and then that can connect to a feeding bag. It's crazy. Yeah. That is so insane. No, it's more insane when you think about it, because he has no way of throwing up. And she can essentially get him to digest whatever she wanted through the stomach tube. This is a recipe for disaster.

So if you try to feed a kid something that they don't want to eat, if it's in their mouth, they can spit it out, they can hide it, they can do something about it, right? But if she puts it straight into his stomach and his body, it's not liking it, he can't throw it up. This is important later. Around this time, Lacey starts telling everyone, I wanna have another baby, and I wanna name him Granite,

Garnet and Granite. This makes me think that she's calculating, trying to create the perfect. The perfect patient child. Yeah. I mean, she just had this crazy baby for her too. She wanted another patient child, I guess. She's like, I gotta have another one.

But at that same time, you know, everyone adored Lacey. They believed that she deserved another child. So much so that one of her friends said, why don't you sleep with my husband? Yeah, and guess what lacy did They slept together a bunch of times. Yeah, the story gets weirder They sleep together a bunch of times and then eventually the wife is like wait a minute That wasn't a good idea, huh? So how does she try to fix it? They have a threesome

I know his jaws dropping. They have a threesome. This story took a very weird turn. Yeah, they have a threesome. Then the wife is like, I still don't like it. So then they stop being friends. I have a falling out. And she just doesn't get pregnant. They're just...absolutely bizarre. Just so weird.

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She's giving him a bath and he's screaming. He doesn't like the water, okay? Like he's just not having it. So what does she do? She pours the water straight over his head. None of it care in the world. If it's going into his ears, his eyes, his mouth, his nose, nothing.

He's screaming even louder now, because he's a kid. What would she do? She would grab his head, hold it under water, until the friends would actually jump up in the bathroom and start screaming at her to stop! And she would tell them, you can't tell me that you've never lost your temper with your kid. Not like that, I haven't. Not like that. So then she posts on Facebook. Feeling like a rather horrible mother tonight. post on Facebook. Feeling like a rather horrible mother tonight. Screamed at my child because he screamed at me. Worst of all, I gave him a freezing cold bath because I asked him

not to play with the hose. I've cried, held him as he slept, asking for forgiveness. Man, did I blow it tonight? Commented like, oh my god no they see you're an amazing mom. Like being a mom is tough. Parenthood is, it's, you know, it's not romanticized like the movie is like we get it. He can feel your love at all times. But other people have different feelings. And we're like, I don't even give my dog a freezing cold bath. Are you kidding? Yeah.

I mean, that's where I'm at. Like, wait, what? I've been in even, are you, what is wrong with you? Lacy went through friends quicker than she went through doctors. Her friends started noticing weird things. They would get a short bob haircut. Guess what? Lacey shows up. Short bob haircut.

Just bizarre. And around this time, she decides to banish modern medicine and just focus on herbs and going vegan. And she starts a new Facebook blog page. Why am I sound like I'm 70? A Facebook page called a hippie happy mom. And everyone was worried. And we know it's just worried.

She also started another one called Garnette Paul's Healthy Journey, Suns Medical Process. Maybe it could be a fan page even, where you could just check out how he's doing. People were excited, they said yes, started. You have an amazing and spurring story, Lacey that can perhaps show a lot of women that despite many obstacles, they can still be the best mommy they can be. Meanwhile, Florida's CPS left a note in their little bindar for Lacey's beers.

That Garnet has lost 50% of his his hearing bleeds from his ears nose and eyes mom will slap him for no reason as hard as she can and he starts crying then she'll hug him that's common with these people is that they will hit their kid and then soothe them they'll make them cry and then go oh baby come here mommy Scotch you have nothing to be scared of they did some what are they doing about that? They did some interviews. But eventually Florida CPS closed the case. And her Facebook page for Garnet was doing well.

So she decides to start another one. And first entry was titled, Mommy, Where is Daddy? And it goes like this. Like any other morning in our house, I stood at the kitchen sink somewhere between one and three a.m. washing dishes. It was something that had to be done, so time meant nothing.

Garnett was in his rocking chair, he was watching cartoons, yes, at one a.m. And he was awake. He decides when we start our day. And he comes up to me, tugs my pants. Mommy, where is my daddy? This wasn't the first time he asked. I don't know what to do.

Do I give him the details? Do I tell him the truth? Or do I butter it up for him? I dried my hands and I kneeled down to his level to answer his question. I looked my baby boy in the face and I said, Your daddy is in you. He's in your ears, your nose, arms, legs, heart and soul. Your daddy is half of you and your mommy is the other half.

And he looked at me and he said, Awesome and ran off. I know the day will come when Garnet will ask again. But for today, he thinks it's awesome. No matter where his father is, he will always be with him and will always be a part of him. The end. The comments are like, oh my god, you're awesome, beautiful response. You're such a great mom, Lacey. Let me suck that dick, Lacey. Sorry, I mean, it was just really a lot, okay? So she's just like, you know, coming up with these and that good response gave her the encouragement she needed to venture out to more audiences. And Lacey wants to, you know, up her Facebook page game

by getting professionally done photos for Garnet, right? She had all these crazy ideas, talked to a local photographer when she was quoted on how much it would cost. She was shocked, not because it was a lot, but because she expected it to be free, with a heck, and she denied to work with him after that. Then of course, the interest in her Facebook page started dwindling down. What the heck? And she denied to work with him after that.

Then of course, the interest in her Facebook page started dwindling down. She needed a new plot. Let's kill the dad. Right? Yeah. Blake, her husband, the father of her child's police officer, tragically died while on patrol in the line of duty. It's a lie that she's told before, but never so officially. Tonight, Garnet woke up from a very deep sleep to tell me, Mommy, Daddy

loves you, and he went back to sleep. And I knew at that moment Blake was with us. Posted photos, my best friend, our strength, my unfailing love and support. Now a friend of hers from high school happened across the page and was confused. Wait a minute, I know that she dated a Blake, that was a police officer, but that's not the Blake that I knew. Was there another Blake? Like that's so a lot of weird coincidences. Reverse image searches that were image. It's a stock photo. What image?

She posted a photo photo my best friend our strength of Blake oh you she posted a stock photo of a policeman yeah yeah yeah it's a stripper yeah no I'm kidding yeah no but like yeah it was a stock photograph okay okay but that didn't stop Lacey because all she did was just block her and move on. Yeah, blocked, moving on with life. I often feel robbed of Garnet's first two and a half years of life. And now I feel robbed of this part of his life. That's our journey.

G has been in the hospital 33 times so far. Med flighted two times and had 12 surgeries for various things, so she's just saying that Blake's death is part of their journey together. And everyone's saying the comments all I can say is, wow, and God bless you. She bragged about donating breast milk. As I approached her door, I saw a mother standing there with tears streaming down her face and a little boy in her arms. In my eyes, I was just getting rid of milk that I no longer had room for.

In her eyes, I was giving life to her child. I'm sorry, I'm not really like a deep person, so these kind of posts always, I don't know, maybe feel weird, okay? Someone was like, wait, have you been nursing for three years now? Because Garnet's three, you still have that much breast milk in you? And I remember, I remember you were bottle feeding, no? And she immediately blocked her. Blocks, delete blocks. Then she realized her attention was fizzling down. So it's time to game of thrones another one. She had gifted Garnet a little cute puppy, right? That she would abuse by throwing it into her hot Florida garage all day long while her neighbors

complained because it was literally yelping for help every day. And then she posted that it died by eating a poisonous frog. I lost a child almost a year ago. My best friend in soulmate 10 months ago. And today my son lost his best friend, his puppy, Odie. What? He has a dog named Odie. He did. his best friend, his puppy, Odie. What the... He has a dog named Odie, who he did.

My family has a dog named Odie. What the hell did I do to ever deserve a life like this? So through her friends, she ends up hearing about a fellowship community in New York called the Waldorf Education System. You live there, you work there, your kids are growing up there, and the whole thing is, it's not a cult, it's just a group of like-minded family members who like to eat healthy, eat to vegan, and believe in holistic medicine, right?

The holistic power of healing. So she decides, well, let me apply to live at this, you know, fellowship, right? Since she wanted to go for a Garnet, but also at the same time, CPS had recently reopened their investigations, so what a perfect time, right? So she announces to our Facebook group,

I'm uprooting my life for my child, it's gonna be better for him there, better for his health. People donated $800 to her. Crazy. Strangers. Wow. So they show up in 2012 to New York, and they see immediately start sharing her tragic life story with everyone And I mean people are like wow police officer has been died in a while on duty

Miss carriages before Garnath. He's a miracle baby, but of course now he's very six and birth Spends most of her time at a hospital. Wow. It's so sad because poor kid can't even eat properly Wow, it's so sad because the poor kid can't even eat properly. Lazy told me that his esophagus is only the quarter of a size that it should be, a fourth of a regular kid's esophagus. Sometimes he would go days without eating food. Do you know how hard that it is for Lazy to watch him not be able to even swallow food? Has to feed him through the tubanous stomach. Oh my god. But then they started noticing that

Garnet just eats everything. Like this kid eats seconds and thirds, mashed potatoes, spicy Chinese takeout, everything. Does he still have the tube? Yeah. So you can still eat and you don't have the... Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean just bizarre. Then sometimes Lacey we get mad at Garnette and just yank his arms so hard that it looked like it was gonna pop out of his socket. Then he would start crying and she would immediately soothe him, immediately.

Okay, that's weird. But her love on Facebook died down again after she moved to New York. So she proudly announced to everyone, I have come out to announce to you that I want to adopt a child with Down syndrome. And of course the praise kept coming in. Oh my god, Lacey, with all the hardship that you already have and you still are looking out for other kids. And she said, well, we all need a family and someone to love us. She

starts taking him to more doctors. It's like a photo op, right? Now the main thing that the doctors kept telling her to do was listen, it's been a lot of years now. It's like a photo op, right? Now the main thing that the doctors kept telling her to do was listen It's been a lot of years now. It's time to do a feeding evaluation evaluate how much food he's taking by mouth versus the tube This is important because let's try not to use the tube Don't good for them to use the tube, but she just refused to do it Then she starts another Facebook page just like writing about little things that Garnett would say about his dad Everyone in the comments was like you need to write a book. This is amazing book material page. Just like writing about little things that Garnett would say about his dad. Everyone in the comments was like, you need to write a book. This is amazing book material. Garnett

starts school and she's chronicling the whole thing like, oh man, he was so sick today. He couldn't even show up to school, but that's okay. Garnett, the grade is gonna do his homework at home. Oh, he's in the hospital missing another day of school. But at school, they saw something completely different. Yes, he missed days, but on the day that he was there, he was a healthy boy that loved to eat. He was outgoing. He was actually voted little mayor of his class,

like the governor, popular amongst students, teachers. Meanwhile at home, Lacey's googling, Blake Robinson of molten Alabama, her ex-husband, or ex-boyfriend, right, that she killed off for the blog. October 6, 2011. This is the date that she claimed he died. And then, normal sodium level for a child.

A few hours later after school, Garnett is brought to the hospital for a fever. But they detected nothing wrong, so they sent her home. She searches eight more times within a 30 minutes ban, elevated sodium and children, dangers of high sodium levels in a child. What happens to someone if they have a high sodium level in the blood? 2pm that Friday rolls around. Now Una Younger was one of her friends, Lacey's friend, right? She's a little bit older, I believe in her 40s at the time, Lacey's her 20s and she calls and says oh my god. Oh my god. It's happening again

What's going on? Garnath's having more seizures. What do I do? I have to go to the hospital? Please help bring me the car bring me a car So who know rushes out of her house straight to Lacey's pulls up in the driveway, you know Expect something to be just standing waiting outside for her I guess it's not really a house, they call it the Tulip House, so it's like still in the fellowship area, right? So she's got the car. Come on, come on, let's go, but they're not there. Okay, well maybe they're inside rushing to get out, right?

So she hunks the car. I gotta get this car in reverse zoom out of here, ace up the minute that they get loaded into the car. Honks the horns more. Okay, this is strange, Maybe they need my help. Oh, they probably do because the hospital bag probably Garnet has a lot of things that they need to bring. So she jumps out the car. Great, the door is unlocked.

Brushes inside. And Lacey is standing near the couch, staring at Garnet while he's moaning and pain. He's hooked up to his feeding machine and inside the feeding bag is this milk-colored liquid. Strange. Because Lacey has always been about green, healthy, vegan. Only feeds five-year-old Garnet greens.

It's like creamy, what? What is in the bag? So she thought, well, maybe it's like milk? Weird. She don't eat ghosts soon? Lacey's calm. It's confusing. She was frantic to go soon? And Lacey's calm. It's confusing. She was frantic a second ago on the phone, but now she's calm.

Maybe she's calm for her baby. Can you guys do this at the hospital? I can't at the hospital feed him. You know, if he's having seizures, I would just bring my kid and be like, feed them. I don't know. I don't want to do anything wrong. Lacey starts calmly packing her things for the hospital. Okay, okay.

Let's get in the car. Una's like, hey, I get in the back with a car and I'll drive. No! I want to drive, Una. What? Yeah, I'm going to drop you off and then I'm going to go to the hospital. No, no, I can go with you. No need.

She gets to the hospital. The whole time she's texting people. Hospital, now, seizure. Lasted five minutes. What if he dies? I'm so scared he's starting to come around now. He's shaking though. Parks.

Before she takes him out, takes a picture of him in the car seat. Are you kidding me? So at the hospital, she's frantic again. He's been on and off having seizures. He's been hospitalized in Alabama for high sodium levels before. Do you think it could be that? Doctor, it was like 200 at the time.

Now the doctor is confused because normal sodium levels are, I believe, like around 135 to 145. 200, they said it's basically not compatible with life. Like you'd be dead or you'd have permanent brain injuries, which he doesn't have. So she keeps repeating this number to doctors to nurses. She would just turn around and be like, oh yeah, nurse. By the way, at one point, he had like a 200 sodium level. Okay, weird. So when they examine the little boy, he's completely fine. No seizure activity, fairly normal.

He's awake, alert. He wasn't even in distress, happily talk to the nurses. So let's find out if he's actually having seizures. They hook him up to an EEG machine. It's when they have those like electrodes that are secured to the head. And then it's connected to this massive monitor. And there's actually a camera on there.

So it's because seizures, they come and go so quickly that the doctor might not be in the room. They just want to monitor everything. They can see their brain wave patterns, and they can also see what's happening with the patient. So it's like a camera setup, like truly a camera. Now, Lacey was very whatever about this. No anxiety, which is a little bit strange,

because usually parents are very protective, like are you sure everything's gonna be okay? It's not gonna hurt, right? None of these questions. Okay, sounds good. So they hook them up. The doctors get them on an IV. They want a complete blood count test.

Meanwhile, Lacey's posting pictures while he's at the hospital. It's getting 22 responses. She even asked friends to bring food. Hospital food isn't something I want GD to eat. No gluten, dairy, or meat. So just fruit, vegetables, grains, nuts, and seeds, please. The doctors are kind of, you know, stoked because Garnet is getting better and better. He's becoming, you know, more energetic. He's excited that there's a TD in the room and he's acting like a normal, healthy, five-year-old boy.

He's painting in his little coloring book. Nurses came in, they disconnected his overnight feeding tube in his stomach, washed the connector tube clean, handed it off to mom, and then closed up Garnet's port from where he is fed, closed it. The whole time he's happy, talking to the nurse, joking around with her cute little five-year-old boy. Soon after that lacy starts googling, what is ionized salt? Why buy ionized salt? What's in ionized salt? And then you know, key words of brain tumors.

She's like googling brain tumors, abnormal brain activity, central nervous system. This is where it gets so EEG video captures Lacey taking Garnet into the bathroom. That is out of view from the camera. He's happy on his way to the bathroom, even grabs a cookie on the way. Then Lacey walks back out, and she goes to her purse that's out of view. But in frame, she's seen walking back into the bathroom with a connector feeding tube and a large cup filled with something. They were in the bathroom for the next three minutes where Lacey opened up Garnet's feeding

port, filled a syringe with liquid containing high amounts of salt. Jammed it into the connector tube, sending the fatal poison straight into our 5 year old son. When he gets back into bed, he could barely sit up. I mean, he looks completely different in just 3 minutes. He's rubbing his nose, he looks terrified. It almost looks like he's felt this feeling before. And he's scared. And he's expecting it. He knows what looks terrified. It almost looks like he's felt this feeling before, and he's scared, and he's expecting it.

He knows what's coming. Like, that's what the police say after they saw it. Lacey puts her things back in her purse. She's not know there's a camera. She knows, but she tried to do everything out of view. She has this blank look, goes over to the bed, leans over her son, makes sure that his feeding port is still closed, and just sits there watching him.

A jury member who saw the video said that it's almost like if you're waiting for your food to be done in the microwave, and you're alone, you're just kind of calmly looking at it. Just casual, not really concerned, not intrigued either, just staring. She even picked up the nurse button and moved it closer to where her hand was. And on camera, Garnet starts kneeling on his bed, and his body starts twisting. And he starts dry heaving because he's trying to throw up this poisonous salt mixture,

but he physically cannot. And when I say poisonous salt mixture, it's just like a heavy lethal amount of salt. If you were to try to feed this into any human, not even just a five year old, they would spit it back out. There's just no way you would swallow that much salt. But it was forced into his feeding tube. So she clicks the button, the nurse's nurses rush in and Lacey starts patting his back, rubbing his back, telling him, it's okay mommy's here, we're gonna help you, it's okay. That's not what she was doing. She was just sitting there watching him before the nurses came in he's screaming he's an agony he keeps asking for water and that throws off the nurses because if you're

nauseous the idea of water makes you want to throw up like you just don't want water then the explosive diarrhea hit through his diapers through the bed sheets and they were confused the staff was so frantic they want to help this kid, but they have no idea what could have caused him to be like this. He starts full-on shivering, they're running the test. Check his kidneys, check his livers. What is not functioning right now? Draw his blood. While this is all running, Lacey starts posting a photo of her baby onto Facebook. Please, please send cheese some love. Went from fine to really sick in moments. What if I told you you could wear the same clothes working from home and the same clothes when you go out to work? Because you're thinking, no, those are two different sets of clothes. My

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Just six hours later, so that was like 10, 30 in the morning. At 4.30 p.m., she drags him back into the bathroom. Oh my God. And when they come out, Garnett looked miserable again. She starts cleaning him up again, sat on the bed, waiting for it to hit. And in 10 minutes, she pressed the emergency nurse call button. He's dry heaving again, the motions of throwing up,

nothing's coming out. And the nurse rushed in and that's when she noticed something strange. His G-Tube port was open on a stomach. So she said, Mom, the G-Tube is open. Oh, okay. And she closed it. She didn't really think of this because this is like a high 10 situation. She's just trying to make sure that this kid is stable, but later I'll come back and,

you know, she's going to talk to a lot of people about this. Doctors and police officers mainly. This time Grunette just did not get better. He started feeling more pain. They tried to stabilize him. He has a headache. He's literally rolling in pain. Meanwhile, Lacey is texting her friends.

He's having another episode. Less than an hour later, Lacey's screaming, nurses Russian, and he's having a full-blown seizure at this point. And guess what she's screaming Look at him. Look at him. I Just what even if that's not my kid. It's a complete stranger kid. I wouldn't be like look at him I feel like how pal but like what do I do? You know do something look at him? Yeah, Pazor

So bizarre! He had peed the bed. He was twitching, his eyes were moving around in his head, and his oxygen levels start falling. I mean, he's having trouble breathing. We gotta put him on life support. He's under critical conditions. Meanwhile, Lacey's texting her friends. Pray like crazy.

Gee, it's not well. Not well! Then she announces to everyone. I have to call my grandma and leave the room. What? You need to call your grandma right now. Like you'd rather call your grandma than be with your child. It's not like you're like, I have to call my mom to tell her to come here.

Your grandma doesn't even, she lives in Florida. She's not gonna come here. Why, can you call her like 10 minutes later? Then the lab results come back and a sodium had jumped from 144 to 182. This is strange. The doctors don't understand this because they had been monitoring him. Anything that went in and out of Garnett, they knew. He was stable. There's no reason. There is no medical condition where your body just naturally does this. It's metabolically impossible without introducing something to your system. They don't get it. And she said to the doctors,

oh well I was expecting that since this previous incident of high sodium I told you about. And they just were so, I mean they had shivers going down their back because she had a smile on her. Like a little bit of a smirk that was coming out. Like I told you this would happen. I told you that he had a previous incident before. So they want to run more labs, error-lift him to the Westchester Medical Center. And they said, come on, they see, get in the helicopter. Oh yeah, no.

I'm just going to have my friend pick me up. What? I'm scared I don't really want to go in the helicopter. Okay I get that you're scared of helicopters but your son is in critical condition he's on life support get in the helicopter. He needs you. So she's like okay fine gets in the helicopter but before they take off she says Facebook, pray for Garnet. He's on life support and being life-flighted. Like, airlifted. So Una younger, sees that.

Rushes to Westchester, you know, the medical hospital. And the director of that children's hospital starts questioning Lacey. Now, Una's there at this point, right? And she's hearing this conversation. Lacey wasn't mentioning most of his prior health issues. She thought that was strange. Like, is she frazzled? Is her brain not working properly?

I don't understand. You forgot that part where you said he does this and that and this. What? Right? And then they start getting into the salt topic. We just don't understand how it's medically possible for a sodium to sore like that,

especially when he's under our care or the last place his care. So at this point the hospital is suspicious, right? They're so suspicious. They're like, we're gonna get this bitch, you know, but they're also mainly focused on Garnette, so they don't want to ice out the mom too much in case like maybe she can help in some way. Lacey, when is the last time you used the feeding tube?

Uh, about a week ago. And Una is like, wait, no, she used it like two days ago, I saw her. So she says, wait, didn't you? And Lacey snaps back. And Una said that she shot her the most disgusting, icy, pure evil look that she had ever seen in her life. It took her breath away. She had to physically leave the conference room

to not burst into tears. She had never seen such a mean nasty face on someone before. So Una wasn't able to say anything? No, not until she pulled the doctor aside later. Okay. But just bizarre, no? So doctors are mainly focusing on saving the little boy. They tell Lacey, no matter what, do not give him anything to drink. It could literally kill him. Right? Because we're focusing on these sodium levels. Like that's our main priority. Don't give him water if it's with the sodium level. Yeah. So this is what I'm thinking, right? Is she just trying to guess empathy? So at this point, I feel like she's not trying to kill him, correct? So this is the interesting thing about this case. Most cases of, you know, I always say it wrong when Chowzen, you know, syndrome by proxy, they don't like to kill the victim

because they, that means the sympathy ends there. And you also seem like a failed mother, like a mom who is not just pushing through forever, but like maybe you had failed her at some point. But in this situation, a lot of people suspect that Lacey was, you know, kind of getting worried because Garnett was too talkative. He was outgoing. He was such a normal kid. He was starting to talk a lot with a lot of people at school, at church, everywhere. And eventually, he might start saying some things.

I see. You know? Yeah, because this point the doctor saying if you do If sent something anything happens. Yeah, we're looking at you. Yeah, and she will do something So in the beginning she was too busy taking pictures anyway Garnet stable and on life support. Please keep praying Finally his sodium levels are coming down the The doctors want to remove his tube. They had a tube in his mouth, right? And Lacey tries to stop them.

What? Why? I just don't want him to be uncomfortable. But if we don't, he risks infection. The tube could get dislodged. Like it's dangerous to just leave that in there. So they take it out anyway, even though she didn't want it. And he starts talking.

He starts following commands. Meanwhile, churches stepped up to donate for Lacey. They started a fund for Garnet's medical expenses. The doctor said he's doing better. Lacey's still posting on Facebook, my heart is broken. He is my world, Garnet, the great, and he will pull through. The doctors are excited about the progress. He's talking, he wants to go home, he wants water, that's a good sign, they would only let him wet his lips, that's it. Lacey would post a different story on Facebook. G is screaming in pain, screaming his head hurts, we laid his bed flat and just waited

to see what happens. Now she's lying. In the comments with them, so sorry this is happening, I love you guys so much, it brings super hard. Then Lacey posted three more pictures of Garnet in his bed, 29 people responded. Then the emergency went off in Garnet's room. So they rushed in, doctors, nurses, the whole floor, and the first thing that they noticed in Lacey's hand was a bottle of Poland spring water. And the doctor just yelled at the nurses,

get that bottle! So they snatched it from her. They kicked Lacey out of the room, and Garnet's pupils were blown, dilated, they weren't reacting to light and he was having a brain issue. Well, what does she do? She gave him water. Knowingly that this could be deadly. Yeah. I just don't even know.

She didn't hide it. Yeah. Is she trying to play ignorant? Yeah, I mean, I think that she was trying to be like, oh, I only I was drinking the water Hmm, you know, okay Meanwhile, Lacey is out of that room calling friends posting on Facebook Garnet stopped breathing and is back on the ventilator. Please pray 50 people responded with sympathy the doctors are busy running tests and the brain scan revealed that he is now brain dead The salt had shifted to the water in his brain cells.

Caused them to swell. It was too much pressure in his brain. It just started expanding, expanding. No way to go. Pressed up against the skull completely fat flat. There was no brain activity at all. So he was brain dead at this point. So Lacey's friends surround her in the hospital when she found out and she runs out of the room Starts crying and running down the hallway on the floors on the walls my baby my baby She just laid there for an hour and a half in the hallway crying making a show At this point Lacey's mom was at the hospital and she wasn't having it

She went out and saw a hallway and said Lacey. I'm sorry you're going through this But this isn't about you. This is about your child and your child is going to die. You need to spend whatever minutes you have left with him in there. Now, because the legal process of declaring someone brain dead, you have to have two different doctors, two second opinions.

I mean, it's a lengthy process. He was in the hospital brain dead for days. Later, the police investigation will show that Lacey took like hundreds of pictures of him, laying there brain dead. It's just weird. I think like if it was a normal situation, I wouldn't say it's weird because maybe you really just want any photo that you can get. But like in this situation, like what is going through this woman's mind in particular? Because it's not a normal woman we're talking about.

It's not a normal mom. It's a bizarre mom. Like I can't even call her a mom, right? The hospital had strong suspicions at this point. They call in dozens of specialists, CPS, the police to investigate what happened to Garnet. And they were just so shocked at least these behavior. Should be sobbing one moment, there were no tears, then they would ask her a question

of like, well, tell us about Garnet's medical history and without even missing a beat, she would just sit up and answer everything. Then go back to sobbing, I mean just bizarre. The police get a search warrant for Lacey's place, everything looked like a kids haven't very neat, a ton of toys everywhere, and then when they head into the kitchen, that's where it's weird. Lacey had a shrine, a literal shrine, photos of Garnet with candles, medications, and a huge box of sea salt. That's so strange. They found a feeding bag, hooked on the machine, in the living room, and another one was in

the garbage, and they both had this white-ish liquid. Now, I don't know why, but they did not think to take it. They just assumed that it was milk Yeah, so when Valerie Lacey's friend had heard the news she was shocked when Lacey called her She didn't expect to call you know She's the one supposed to be calling Lacey. She's going through so much. Why does she have time to call Valerie? It's not even like their best friends She says Valerie go to my room, go to my house.

Get the feeding bag in the middle of the living room. Throw it away, don't tell anyone, don't show anyone. Can you do it now? Can you do it now and can you promise that you won't show anyone? Uh, okay, yeah, I'll do it. So she hangs up and Valerie keeps thinking, okay, there's a little weird. So she calls her friend Chloe. Can you come with me? I just feel weird. It's just kind of creepy. Okay, yeah, I'll go. So they walk to Lacey's place together. And they run into one of other

Lacey's friends and neighbors, right? They say, oh yeah, the police were just here. They took pictures of everything. I think they took like three bags of evidence with them. They had no idea that the police had searched it. so now they're even weirded out by this. Why the police searching her place? That's weird. Why does she want us to get rid of this? So they see the feeding bag hanging in the middle of the room. They take it off, put it into a plastic bag, and leave.

Now they decide, thankfully, not to throw it away. They left it in her apartment, and later gave it to the head of the commune, or not the commune, the fellowship. And together, they debated whether or not to call the police. Eventually, they would turn it in. Valerie would give her damning statement. The police would go back to Lacy's and get that other bag that was left in the trash.

And both bags showed high contents of sodium. That was way beyond seasoning. Just like lethal amounts. This was the smoking gun. Then the police start talking to Lacey's dad. I'm so sorry about Blake. Huh? Who's that? Garnett's father?

Lacey told us? What? Who's Blake? No, his dad is Chris Hill and he's fine. He's alive. He lives in Alabama. Meanwhile, Lacey knows she's about to go down. So she starts googling how much insulin do you need to kill yourself? She's still constantly posting on Facebook,

greeting him, then getting mad at the hospital for, you know, allegedly killing her baby. She starts shifting the blame on the hospital. How can this happen to him while he's under their care? They don't know what they're doing. Then she'd get mad at the police for even accusing her. I mean, it was a rollercoaster of emotion. She was a mess.

She tried to take the money from Garnett's medical fund that everyone donated to, but she wanted to use it for attorney fees. So the manager of the account refused. And she was so pissed that when she found out that they had actually refunded everyone their money, I mean, she wanted to like, she started unfriending people on Facebook.

She was that pissed, okay? The police find out about her Facebook accounts, her many Facebook accounts. They notice that she's trying to delete things. So they rush to get a search warrant. Later, her social media records were close to 50,000 pages long. I'm talking Facebook, multiple Twitter accounts, Instagram, MySpace. And then she gets a new phone and just keeps adding to them

because her one was confiscated by the police. And it was very self-pitting. None of them were about Garnet. At 26, I would have never imagined my life would be here as it is now. I never thought I would be standing at my bedside of my five-year-old son holding his tiny leg as he took his last breath. I will never forget hearing the doctor

pronounce Skarnet brain dead. Those words haunt me. They run through my thoughts endlessly. She's being invested, investigated. Yeah. That's her concern right now. Still writing posts? Yeah.

So one of her friends who happens to be a nurse gets interviewed by the police. This is one of Lacey's friends. She's a nurse. So she's telling them and she's saying, you know, maybe Lacey poisoned him at the hospital. That's the only way it makes sense to me. Poisoned her son at the hospital. Did you guys watch the video?

Did you show anything? Probably not. What video? The EEG machine records video. You guys didn't. So they're like, what? They rush. They get it.

And they start playing it. I mean,'t. So they're like, what? They rush, they get it. And they start playing it. I mean, it had like dozens of hours, right? So they start playing every frame. What's important? What's not? They don't know. And then when they get those points,

they realize that they were watching a five year old boy get murdered by his own mom. And they said it was haunting, and they will never recover from it. They had Lacey arrested. She went to trial and of course, she was found guilty. And what's crazy is that she's sitting in prison right now. And the whole trial was about, you know, her whole munchowsons syndrome by proxy.

She says that I can't believe that the judge said that. He had no training as a psychiatrist. There is no way that I'm suffering from that. Like she claims that she can't believe that the judge said that he had no training as a psychiatrist There is no way that I'm suffering from that like she claims that she doesn't have that and that Garnett was killed by the hospital So she's complete denial denial But like she's the worst liar ever. She was like a one one interview that she did in prison just the worst liar ever Yeah, so that's what I feel like people like that, they can't help it at this point. They can't help it.

Yeah, they will denial to the day they die. Yeah, and what is comical to a certain level, if you like dark humor, is a lot of the inmates hate her. So they started putting heavy amounts of salt in her food. The, you know, because inmates work in the kitchen. Yeah, just heavy amounts of salt in her food. The, you know, cause it makes work in the kitchen. Yeah. Just heavy amounts of salt in her food. Yeah, dark humor.

At least there's something there. And that's the story of this. So how long is she getting life? It was, I believe, 30 years to life. Her earliest possible release is June of 2034. That's pretty early. That's really early. That's really, really, really. The earliest possible release is June of 2034. That's pretty early. That's really early. That's really, really, really early.

She didn't get the maximum sentence because the judge said that he hopes that she realizes that she has munchows and syndrome by proxy. I don't know how I feel about this one. Like, she's so evil. This is so evil. It's just bizarre and the fact that she's like blogging it. And to me, it sounds like she's been torturing the kid

for five years. So it wasn't just like a five minutes. Five years. And then the way that he passed is... And even the aftermath. So it doesn't seem like there's a moment she realized, oh, I murdered my child. She's still like blogging, writing these exact same posts.

So that makes me feel like she will do it again if she never got caught, right? She will keep doing it. And keep doing it. I mean, I hate this woman. I don't know what else to say. Okay, this woman sucks. I hope she never gets out. She doesn't deserve to be out. What are your thoughts on this one? And do you think like, do you think I know that the internet is great in some aspects and it's really shitty in some aspects?

This is one that's... That's really shitty. Just so she could have some strangers like her on the internet and say wow you're a great mom. How is that even fulfilling? I hope you guys enjoyed this week's main episode and I will see you guys on Sunday for the mini-sode. Bye!