OT: Prosecutors: McCarron Obsessed With Cure For Daughter's Autism

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Prosecutors: McCarron Obsessed With Cure For Daughter's Autism

By Associated Press http://tinyurl.com/38t9vj

Pekin -- A former pathologist accused of suffocating her

3-year-old autistic daughter with a garbage bag alternated between

being obsessed with finding a cure for the little girl and wanting to

put her up for adoption, the woman's weeping husband testified Monday.

" All ever thought about was finding a cure for the

autism, " McCarron said during the opening day of McCarron's

murder trial at Tazewell County Circuit Court in Pekin, just southwest

of Peoria.

When he arrived home after McCarron died, McCarron

said he found his wife locked in a bathroom, the Pekin Daily Times and

the (Peoria) Journal Star reported. After kicking the door open he

found McCarron on the floor with cuts to her wrists and Tylenol

pills on the counter.

McCarron said " I hurt " before she handed over her

engagement ring, McCarron told the jury of eight men and four women.

McCarron, 39, of Morton, has pleaded not guilty by reason

of insanity to two counts of first-degree murder, a count of

obstructing justice and one count of concealment of a homicidal death

in the May 13, 2006, death of her daughter .

McCarron, who has been free on bond since 2006, has been found

mentally fit to stand trial. But a medical expert hired by her

attorneys said McCarron was insane at the time of the killing.

McCarron's mental fitness will loom large the trial, defense

attorney Marc Wolfe said during his opening statement Monday.

" She is a woman who has dealt with life stresses. What we have

to ultimately remember is what happened on May 13 and what her state

of mind was on that day, not what her state of mind was three weeks

before or after the crime, " Wolfe said.

The videotaped confession McCarron made to police is also

inconsistent with physical evidence, Wolfe said.

But McCarron told Morton police detectives she " just

wanted autism out of my life " and was obsessed with the condition,

Tazewell County Assistant State's Attorney Kirk Schoenbein said in his

opening statement.

McCarron allegedly killed her daughter after she tried to find

multiple schools and treatments for the child, Schoenbein said.

" But the treatment was not going to make the autism go away. So

she found another way, " he said.

McCarron placed the trash bag used to suffocate the girl in a

trash can at her mother's house, but later moved it to a gas station

restroom after thinking police might find it in its original location,

Schoenbein said.

McCarron, a Caterpillar Inc. engineer who filed for divorce

after his daughter's death, also testified Monday that McCarron

began seeing a psychologist for stress while training as a resident in

Cleveland.

He said she told him she'd had suicidal thoughts after being

prescribed an antidepressant. She stopped taking the medication in the

months before 's death, he said.

McCarron often mentioned giving up for adoption, but

McCarron said his answer was always the same.

" No way in hell, " he said. " She's my daughter. "