"She told me she killed Katie"

"I asked her what happened and she told me she hurt Katie. And I asked again and she told me she killed Katie," Paul McCarron told prosecutor Kevin Johnson at Tuesday's motion to suppress hearing.

Paul McCarron said that when he asked Karen how she killed their 3-year-old daughter Katie, Karen took off her wedding ring and told him he could never forgive her.

"I asked her how, again, and she told me, 'With a plastic bag,'" Paul said.

Paul McCarron told the court that when he first heard that something happened to his daughter, he flew from North Carolina to Chicago, then drove to Morton.

When he arrived home, he asked for Karen, who was upstairs. Paul found their bedroom door locked. His brother kicked it open. Paul then found the door to the bedroom's bathroom locked.

His brother kicked that door open. "I saw Karen on the floor, looking at pictures of our daughters," he told the court.

"She was sad, she looked distraught," Paul told Johnson.

Johnson asked, "Was she crying?"

"I don't remember tears," Paul said, nearly crying himself as he answered the prosecutor's questions.

Karen McCarron's mother, Erna Frank, told the court that she was in the McCarron home the day Katie died. Frank said that Katie was awake and active when Karen took the girl out for a drive. She said that Karen returned home, carrying Katie over her shoulder.

Prosecutor Kirk Schoenbein asked Frank to retell the events that occurred the day Katie was found breathless and the day Karen attempted to commit suicide.

"After a while," Frank said, "she told me that she did hurt Katie."

"Is that the first time she told you," Schoenbein asked.

"Yes," Frank said.

"What did you do?" Schoenbein asked.

"I cried," Frank said.

In May 2006, police responded to the McCarron home in regard to a child not breathing. When they arrived, they found Katie McCarron in full arrest with no pulse.

The next day, police again responded to the McCarron home because Karen had taken an overdose of Tylenol. While Karen recovered in the hospital, a Morton police detective and Paul McCarron spoke with Karen. At that time, she allegedly admitted taking Katie and holding a white plastic garbage bag over Katie's head until she was dead.

Court records allege that Karen discarded the bag in a trash can at a gas station.

In June 2006, a five-count indictment was filed against McCarron charging her with first degree murder, obstruction of justice and concealment of homicidal death.

Earlier this month, McCarron's attorney Marc D. Wolfe filed two motions to suppress statements given by Karen and doctors who interviewed her after her arrest.

The first motion asks the court to bar as evidence any statements made by Karen prior to, at the time of, or subsequent to her arrest.

A second motion alleges that two doctors' testimony would be a violation of physician-client privilege.

Dr. Sohee Lee, a psychiatrist at OSF Saint Francis Medical Center, told the court that he spoke with Karen after she overdosed on Tylenol. "She seemed as if she were preoccupied or something," Lee told the court.

Schoenbein asked Lee if Karen said anything about what happened to Katie.

"She talked about what happened on the day," Lee said. "She said she - she put a garbage bag on her daughter's head."

The six-and-a-half hour hearing ended at 6 p.m. Tuesday and will resume in June.

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'
Karen's taped confession played in pretrial hearing: 'I wanted to take the autism out of her'
Pretrial and opening statements
Katie's grandpa testifies: Karen thought her life would be 'perfect'. Also, Katie's dad says Karen wanted to institutionalize Katie; Katie's teachers said she was doing fine.
She told Katie's grandma many times she wished Katie was dead
'In heaven, she would be complete'
More analysis of the Journal-Star articles.
Murder of Autistics (Archive)

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