# Lacey Spears Part 02 _ Garnett the Great

An episode of [This is monsters](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/6825840254), 23 Oct 2026, 36 min.

Audio: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/75937360/lacey_spears_part_02_garnett_the_great_mp3_128k.mp3

Lacey Spears Part 02 – Garnett the Great continues the disturbing true-crime case involving Lacey Spears and her son, Garnett Spears. Known online as “Garnett the Great,” Garnett's story drew widespread public attention as investigators examined the circumstances surrounding his medical history and the events leading to his death.In this second part, the investigation continues to explore the evidence, the concerns raised during Garnett's medical care, and the legal case that followed. The episode also considers the broader issues surrounding caregiver trust, medical deception, and the challenges professionals face when trying to identify possible abuse.Through a closer examination of the case, listeners can learn more about the investigation and the legal proceedings that brought national attention to this tragic story.If you follow true crime, criminal investigations, and complex psychological cases, this episode continues a deeply troubling story about vulnerability, accountability, and the pursuit of justice.

## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: When we left off on part one, Lacey had taken
[0:03] Speaker 1: Garnet and moved to the Fellowship community in Chestnut Ridge,
[0:07] Speaker 1: New York. When she arrived there, she immediately told the
[0:11] Speaker 1: other members that her fiancé, Garnet's father, had died in
[0:15] Speaker 1: a car accident and continued to tell people that Garnet
[0:18] Speaker 1: had trouble eating. A number of people noted that the
[0:21] Speaker 1: boy seemed to have no problem eating and questioned the
[0:24] Speaker 1: need for the feeding tube. Not only that, but a
[0:28] Speaker 1: pediatric gastroenterologist had asked Lacey to schedule a feeding evaluation
[0:33] Speaker 1: to determine if Garnet still needed the feeding tube. The
[0:37] Speaker 1: doctor didn't seem to think it was necessary anymore and
[0:40] Speaker 1: wanted to make sure the boy was ready to have
[0:42] Speaker 1: it removed. Lacey failed to ever schedule the evaluation. The
[0:48] Speaker 1: gastroenterologist asked her several times to schedule it, but she wouldn't.
[0:53] Speaker 1: This was because she didn't want the feeding tube to
[0:56] Speaker 1: be removed. Garnet never needed it in the first place.
[1:01] Speaker 1: Multiple doctors had refused to implant one because they said
[1:05] Speaker 1: it was not needed. She had to shop for a
[1:08] Speaker 1: doctor that would actually perform the procedure. She wanted the
[1:12] Speaker 1: feeding tube so she could control what was going into
[1:15] Speaker 1: Garnet's system. She wanted to be able to easily poison
[1:19] Speaker 1: him so that she could make him sick whenever she
[1:21] Speaker 1: needed him to be. For Lacey Spears, removing the feeding
[1:26] Speaker 1: tube was not an option. This is Monsters. Not long
[1:56] Speaker 1: after moving to the fellowship, Lacey began supplementing her attention
[2:00] Speaker 1: by accusing male members of sexual harassment. She reported one
[2:05] Speaker 1: man to the police for exposing himself to her twice,
[2:08] Speaker 1: which he adamantly denied. He was told to stay away
[2:12] Speaker 1: from her and nothing further came of it. Then she
[2:15] Speaker 1: accused another man of sexually harassing her and he and
[2:18] Speaker 1: his wife were asked to leave the fellowship. He was
[2:21] Speaker 1: never given an opportunity to defend himself. When Garnet entered
[2:25] Speaker 1: kindergarten at the Waldorf School, it was another place for
[2:29] Speaker 1: Lacey to soak in the sympathy. It didn't take long
[2:32] Speaker 1: for every other parent to know that Garrett had health
[2:35] Speaker 1: problems and her beloved fiancé Blake, the police officer, had died.
[2:40] Speaker 1: Of course, the more Lacey talked, the more questions arose.
[2:44] Speaker 1: She regularly told people that Garnet had cochlear implants, but
[2:49] Speaker 1: one of the other parents knew that those required a
[2:52] Speaker 1: visible device placed outside of the ear. When the parent
[2:56] Speaker 1: asked Lacey about the lack of cochlear device, she was
[2:59] Speaker 1: told that Garnet had a new technology that didn't require
[3:02] Speaker 1: the external device. The parent would later say that she
[3:05] Speaker 1: looked it up online and couldn't find anything that matched
[3:08] Speaker 1: what Lacey had described. Garnet's teacher also found that Lacey's
[3:13] Speaker 1: description of a sick child who had trouble eating did
[3:16] Speaker 1: not match the behavior she saw from the boy in
[3:19] Speaker 1: her classroom. On December 3rd, 2013, Garnet Spears would enter
[3:25] Speaker 1: his fifth and final year of life. Just after Christmas,
[3:29] Speaker 1: while Lacey and Garnet were in Florida for the holiday,
[3:32] Speaker 1: Lacey started sending emails to various people, including Garnet's teacher,
[3:37] Speaker 1: that the boy had been hospitalized with a fever. She
[3:40] Speaker 1: wrote that he was vomiting, something he was incapable of doing,
[3:44] Speaker 1: and that his fever had reached 105 degrees. When she
[3:49] Speaker 1: returned from Florida, Lacey denied ever taking Garnett to the hospital,
[3:53] Speaker 1: and her family in Florida confirmed that he never went
[3:56] Speaker 1: to the hospital. On January 7, 2014, Garnett returned to
[4:01] Speaker 1: kindergarten and was reported by the teacher to be happy
[4:04] Speaker 1: and healthy. On the 10th, Lacey kept Garnet home from school,
[4:08] Speaker 1: claiming he had a fever and the flu. She took
[4:11] Speaker 1: him to the pediatrician the same day and told the
[4:14] Speaker 1: doctor that Garnet was having trouble in school and was
[4:17] Speaker 1: unable to concentrate, something that his teacher said was absolutely
[4:21] Speaker 1: not true. Lacey claimed that Garnet had night terrors and
[4:25] Speaker 1: again claimed that he had trouble eating, something that had
[4:28] Speaker 1: been displayed to be not true over and over again.
[4:32] Speaker 1: His teacher said that he ate his entire lunch every
[4:34] Speaker 1: day and that she had to ask Lacey to provide
[4:37] Speaker 1: a bigger lunch because he always wanted more. Another sign
[4:41] Speaker 1: of someone having Munchausen syndrome by proxy is that the
[4:44] Speaker 1: symptoms only happen while the child is alone with the parent.
[4:48] Speaker 1: Lacey claimed that Garnet regularly refused to eat, but it
[4:52] Speaker 1: only ever happened when she was alone with him. I
[4:55] Speaker 1: don't doubt that can happen occasionally. It's like when your
[4:58] Speaker 1: car makes a noise, so you take it to the shop,
[5:00] Speaker 1: but it never makes the noise for the mechanic. Then
[5:03] Speaker 1: you start driving home, and it makes the noise again.
[5:05] Speaker 1: I'm sure that something like that can happen for a child,
[5:09] Speaker 1: but for nobody, not a single other person, including countless
[5:13] Speaker 1: friends and family who were around him for extended periods
[5:17] Speaker 1: of time, to have never witnessed a single time in
[5:21] Speaker 1: five years, that's when it becomes unlikely that it's really happening.
[5:26] Speaker 1: That's another sign of someone who has Munchausen syndrome by proxy.
[5:30] Speaker 1: The symptoms only occur when the child is alone with
[5:33] Speaker 1: the parent, but they go away once in the care
[5:36] Speaker 1: of others. Garnet, like other children in Lacey's care, had
[5:41] Speaker 1: always seemed to get better from their ailments as soon
[5:43] Speaker 1: as they were in the care of someone else, whether
[5:46] Speaker 1: that be a doctor, nurse, friend, or teacher. On Sunday,
[5:51] Speaker 1: January 12th, Lacey updated Gardet's teacher that he still had
[5:55] Speaker 1: a fever and wouldn't be in school the next day.
[5:57] Speaker 1: At about midnight that night, she used her smartphone to
[6:02] Speaker 1: search the internet for Blake Robinson, the same man she
[6:05] Speaker 1: had modeled her fake dead fiancé after. Then she searched
[6:09] Speaker 1: exactly how many days had passed since October 6th, 2011,
[6:14] Speaker 1: the day she claimed that the fictitious Blake had died.
[6:18] Speaker 1: The following morning, at 6.16 a.m., she searched, quote, normal
[6:23] Speaker 1: sodium level for a child. Then she used an online
[6:27] Speaker 1: medical encyclopedia to search for the ratio of sodium to blood.
[6:32] Speaker 1: Later that morning, Lacey took Garnett to the doctor, claiming
[6:35] Speaker 1: that he had had a fever of 105 for five days.
[6:40] Speaker 1: The doctor took his temperature and it was normal. After
[6:43] Speaker 1: an examination, the doctor determined that Garnett was perfectly healthy.
[6:48] Speaker 1: At 8.17 that night, Lacey continued to search the internet
[6:52] Speaker 1: for information about elevated sodium in children. She searched, quote,
[6:57] Speaker 1: what happens to someone if they have high sodium levels
[7:00] Speaker 1: in the blood, and dangers of high sodium levels in children.
[7:04] Speaker 1: She also made a number of searches for the term hypernatremia,
[7:08] Speaker 1: which is the condition caused by an excess of sodium
[7:11] Speaker 1: in the blood and it can be fatal. The following day,
[7:15] Speaker 1: January 14th, At just before midnight, Lacey took Garnet to
[7:19] Speaker 1: the emergency room at Good Samaritan Hospital. She told the
[7:23] Speaker 1: staff that Garnet had had two seizures. The second one
[7:27] Speaker 1: was right there in the waiting room. She also said
[7:30] Speaker 1: that he had a headache, was dry heaving, and had
[7:33] Speaker 1: explosive diarrhea. She specifically told the doctor that the boy
[7:37] Speaker 1: had had seizures in the past due to hypernatremia. If
[7:41] Speaker 1: he had seizures in the past due to that condition,
[7:44] Speaker 1: why did you have to just look it up on
[7:46] Speaker 1: the internet the night before? After a number of tests,
[7:50] Speaker 1: the hospital determined that Garnett's sodium levels were only slightly
[7:54] Speaker 1: elevated at 147. The highest normal sodium level was 145,
[8:01] Speaker 1: so though it was high, the doctor explained that it
[8:03] Speaker 1: wasn't high enough to cause seizures. After it was observed
[8:08] Speaker 1: that Garnett was doing better, they discharged him. Back at home,
[8:12] Speaker 1: Lacey complained to friends that the hospital wasn't taking her seriously,
[8:16] Speaker 1: and she told people that Garnet's sodium levels had been 189,
[8:21] Speaker 1: a much deadlier level. She continued to communicate with friends
[8:25] Speaker 1: over text and Facebook that Garnet was having multiple seizures.
[8:30] Speaker 1: On the morning of January 16th, Lacey took Garnet back
[8:34] Speaker 1: to his pediatrician, explaining that the boy had had multiple seizures,
[8:38] Speaker 1: but that the hospital had claimed he was okay. The
[8:41] Speaker 1: doctor examined Garnet and also found him to be perfectly healthy.
[8:45] Speaker 1: He referred Lacey to a pediatric neurologist regarding the alleged seizures.
[8:51] Speaker 1: On January 17th, Garnet's teacher stopped by his and Lacey's
[8:55] Speaker 1: house to check up on him. Inside, she saw Lacey
[8:59] Speaker 1: holding Garnet on the couch, who was in obvious distress.
[9:03] Speaker 1: Next to them was an IV pole and pump. The
[9:06] Speaker 1: pole was holding a bag of milky-colored liquid and it
[9:09] Speaker 1: looked as though it was ready to be used. Just
[9:12] Speaker 1: after the teacher left, Lacey used the pump and pushed
[9:15] Speaker 1: the fluid directly into Garnet's stomach. A few minutes later,
[9:20] Speaker 1: Lacey made a frantic call to Una, saying that Garnet
[9:22] Speaker 1: was having a seizure and she needed to borrow a
[9:25] Speaker 1: car to take him to the hospital. She told Una
[9:28] Speaker 1: that she didn't want to ride, she wanted to go herself.
[9:32] Speaker 1: On the way, Lacey pulled over and took a picture
[9:35] Speaker 1: of Garnet in his car seat to post to Facebook,
[9:38] Speaker 1: you know, while she was on the way to the
[9:41] Speaker 1: emergency room. At this hospital, a different hospital than she
[9:45] Speaker 1: had taken Garnet a few days before, Lacey again went
[9:49] Speaker 1: through her son's lifetime of medical issues. It's also reported
[9:53] Speaker 1: that Lacey told the nurse that Garnet wasn't vaccinated due
[9:56] Speaker 1: to her strict Mormon religious beliefs. Now this... is the
[10:00] Speaker 1: first and only place where I have seen any mention
[10:03] Speaker 1: of Lacey being Mormon. I also couldn't find any information
[10:07] Speaker 1: that supported the idea that vaccinations are against the Mormon religion.
[10:11] Speaker 1: I actually found an article which stated the leaders of
[10:14] Speaker 1: Mormon churches would not issue vaccination exemptions, so I don't
[10:18] Speaker 1: know if this is a flat-out lie by Lacey or
[10:21] Speaker 1: if it was noted incorrectly in the medical record. I'm
[10:24] Speaker 1: wondering if Lacey lied but mistaken Mormons for the Amish.
[10:28] Speaker 1: Who knows? When the doctor examined Garnet, he found no
[10:33] Speaker 1: evidence of seizure activity. When Lacey told the doctor that
[10:36] Speaker 1: when Garnet was a baby, he had been hospitalized with
[10:39] Speaker 1: a sodium level of about 200, the doctor was immediately
[10:44] Speaker 1: suspicious as that level would have been lethal in an infant,
[10:47] Speaker 1: but he admitted the child for observation and called in
[10:50] Speaker 1: a pediatric neurologist to consult regarding the seizures. The emergency
[10:55] Speaker 1: room doctor explained the situation to the hospital's pediatrician and
[10:59] Speaker 1: informed her of his suspicion that Lacey suffered from Munchausen
[11:03] Speaker 1: syndrome by proxy. In order to determine if Garnet was
[11:07] Speaker 1: suffering from seizures, they would conduct an EEG, which would
[11:11] Speaker 1: be accompanied by a video. This would measure the brainwaves
[11:15] Speaker 1: and also provide a visual to match what the body
[11:18] Speaker 1: was doing during certain brain activity. The doctor noted that
[11:22] Speaker 1: Lacey seemed completely passive about the idea of admitting her
[11:26] Speaker 1: son to the hospital and having hooked up to a machine.
[11:29] Speaker 1: When they tested his blood, his sodium levels came back normal,
[11:33] Speaker 1: but when the doctor informed Lacey, he noted that she
[11:35] Speaker 1: had no reaction. Over the next few days, Garnet was
[11:39] Speaker 1: hooked up to the EEG machine, and unsurprisingly, he had
[11:43] Speaker 1: no seizures. He didn't even have anything that could be
[11:46] Speaker 1: interpreted as a seizure. No headache, no retching, no shaking.
[11:51] Speaker 1: The neurologist, who was a seizure specialist, had examined Garnet
[11:55] Speaker 1: and saw nothing wrong with him. By Sunday morning, hospital
[11:59] Speaker 1: staff were expected to discharge the boy the next day.
[12:03] Speaker 1: All of his EEG results were normal, and if his
[12:06] Speaker 1: MRI that was scheduled for the next day was normal,
[12:08] Speaker 1: he would be sent home. At 9.08 a.m., Lacey used
[12:13] Speaker 1: her phone to search the internet for, quote, what is
[12:16] Speaker 1: iodized salt, why buy iodized salt, and Morton iodized salt,
[12:21] Speaker 1: what's in it. Then she searched for information about the
[12:24] Speaker 1: central nervous system and brain tumors. At 10.25 a.m., the
[12:30] Speaker 1: camera on the EEG caught Lacey going into the bathroom
[12:33] Speaker 1: with Garnet. Garnet had been happy and playing around on
[12:37] Speaker 1: the bed just before that. The camera obviously couldn't see
[12:41] Speaker 1: into the bathroom, but she came back out and dug
[12:44] Speaker 1: something out of her bag. She could be seen holding
[12:46] Speaker 1: a connector tube for Garnet's feeding port in one hand
[12:50] Speaker 1: and a large cup in the other as she walked
[12:52] Speaker 1: back into the bathroom. When Lacey came out of the
[12:55] Speaker 1: bathroom three minutes later, she was carrying a lethargic Garnet
[12:59] Speaker 1: who was placed on the bed. Lacey went back into
[13:02] Speaker 1: the bathroom and retrieved the tube and cup and put
[13:05] Speaker 1: them away. Then she sat, emotionless, as she watched Garnet,
[13:09] Speaker 1: waiting for the overdose of sodium to kick in. She
[13:12] Speaker 1: even moved the nurse's call button closer ahead of time,
[13:16] Speaker 1: in preparation of using it. At 10.35 a.m., Garnett rolled
[13:21] Speaker 1: over and began dry heaving, and Lacey pressed the call
[13:24] Speaker 1: button to alert the nurse that there was a problem.
[13:27] Speaker 1: The pediatrician came in and gave Garnett an anti-nausea medication,
[13:31] Speaker 1: and soon the boy began having explosive diarrhea. The doctor
[13:35] Speaker 1: ordered blood work to check his sodium, blood sugar, chloride,
[13:39] Speaker 1: and potassium levels. While they waited for the results, Lacey
[13:43] Speaker 1: took a picture of her severely suffering son and posted
[13:47] Speaker 1: it to Facebook, because that was what was important to her.
[13:51] Speaker 1: Not getting her son better, but displaying his suffering so
[13:54] Speaker 1: everyone could feel bad for poor Lacey, the single mom
[13:58] Speaker 1: with a dead fiancé and sick child. I've covered a
[14:02] Speaker 1: lot of terrible people, but this just seems to be
[14:04] Speaker 1: the highest level of depravity. To intentionally cause long-term suffering
[14:09] Speaker 1: of your own child in order to get sympathy from
[14:12] Speaker 1: other people. When the results of the blood work came back,
[14:16] Speaker 1: Lacey asked specifically about the sodium level, which the nurse
[14:19] Speaker 1: said was in the normal range. At 4.19pm, the camera
[14:24] Speaker 1: caught Lacey take Garnet into the bathroom again with the
[14:27] Speaker 1: cup in the tube. By the time they went in,
[14:30] Speaker 1: Garnet was doing better and playing on his bed again.
[14:33] Speaker 1: When they came out of the bathroom, though, he was
[14:35] Speaker 1: lethargic and soon began dry heaving again. The doctor administered
[14:40] Speaker 1: more anti-nausea medication and pain relievers for Garnet's headache. Unlike
[14:45] Speaker 1: the last time, Garnet's condition only deteriorated and at 5.30 p.m.
[14:50] Speaker 1: he began having a full-blown seizure. Lacey began screaming for
[14:54] Speaker 1: the nurse who rushed in and a code white was called.
[14:57] Speaker 1: The doctor had to give him multiple doses of anti-seizure
[15:01] Speaker 1: medication to stop the boy from seizing. Then he began
[15:04] Speaker 1: having trouble breathing. His O2 levels dropped so low that
[15:08] Speaker 1: the doctor had to intubate him and put him on
[15:10] Speaker 1: a breathing machine. When Garnett's blood work came back this time,
[15:14] Speaker 1: his sodium had jumped from 144 to 182. Every doctor
[15:19] Speaker 1: involved was in disbelief because there was literally no medical
[15:23] Speaker 1: reason for his sodium levels to jump that high in
[15:26] Speaker 1: a matter of hours. Garnett was airlifted to a pediatric
[15:30] Speaker 1: intensive care unit at Westchester Medical Center. Dr. Kerry Goldsman,
[15:35] Speaker 1: director of the PICU at the hospital, came into the
[15:38] Speaker 1: room to examine the boy, and that's when he realized
[15:41] Speaker 1: how Garnett's sodium levels could have suddenly gone up. He
[15:45] Speaker 1: had been previously notified about the boy's condition over the phone,
[15:49] Speaker 1: and when he was informed that Garnett's sodium had suddenly
[15:52] Speaker 1: spiked at 182, he demanded that they redo the test
[15:56] Speaker 1: because clearly someone had screwed up. Since he hadn't physically
[16:00] Speaker 1: seen the patient, he was unaware that he had a
[16:02] Speaker 1: feeding tube, but as soon as he saw it, he
[16:05] Speaker 1: thought that it was possible that someone had given Garnet
[16:08] Speaker 1: a high dose of sodium chloride, which would cause the
[16:11] Speaker 1: rise in sodium along with the rise in chloride that
[16:14] Speaker 1: the blood test had also shown. When Dr. Goldsman questioned Lacey,
[16:18] Speaker 1: she listed all of his medical conditions like she happily
[16:21] Speaker 1: did for anyone who asked. When he asked her when
[16:24] Speaker 1: the last time Garnet had been fed using his feeding tube,
[16:28] Speaker 1: Lacey responded that it had been a week ago. Una
[16:31] Speaker 1: was with Lacey at the hospital and she had seen
[16:33] Speaker 1: her friend feed Garnet with the feeding tube two days prior,
[16:37] Speaker 1: but when she tried to correct Lacey, the woman just
[16:40] Speaker 1: shot her an icy look. Una also noticed that Lacey
[16:43] Speaker 1: left out many of the medical conditions that she had
[16:46] Speaker 1: told other people that Garnet suffered from. Una was the
[16:50] Speaker 1: next in a long line of people who were realizing
[16:52] Speaker 1: that something wasn't right with Lacey and her son's medical conditions.
[16:57] Speaker 1: By the end of the day, Garnet's sodium levels had
[17:00] Speaker 1: dropped slightly and he regained consciousness. Dr. Alan Pinto took
[17:05] Speaker 1: over Garnet's care from Dr. Goldsman, and he informed Lacey
[17:09] Speaker 1: that they were going to remove her son's breathing tube.
[17:12] Speaker 1: To Dr. Pinto's surprise, she asked him not to. She
[17:15] Speaker 1: told the doctor that she didn't want him to be uncomfortable,
[17:18] Speaker 1: but leaving it in increased the risk of infection, so
[17:21] Speaker 1: despite her objection, the breathing tube was removed. It's speculated
[17:26] Speaker 1: that she was afraid that Garnet would tell people what
[17:28] Speaker 1: had happened in the bathroom. After the breathing tube was out,
[17:32] Speaker 1: Garnet just kept asking to go home. As time passed,
[17:36] Speaker 1: the doctor and the nurses would check on Garnet and
[17:39] Speaker 1: report that he was doing well. On Facebook, though, Lacey
[17:43] Speaker 1: was posting about her son screaming in pain and saying
[17:46] Speaker 1: his head hurt. The next morning, the nurse reported that
[17:49] Speaker 1: Garnett seemed to sleep well through the night, but Lacey
[17:53] Speaker 1: posted that they got little sleep and Garnett was screaming
[17:56] Speaker 1: in pain. On January 21st, Dr. Goldsman and Dr. Pinto
[18:01] Speaker 1: did their rounds and observed Garnett peacefully laying in his bed.
[18:05] Speaker 1: His blood work showed that his sodium level had come
[18:08] Speaker 1: down to 146 and he was recovering well. That morning,
[18:13] Speaker 1: Lacey texted a friend that the doctor was an asshole
[18:17] Speaker 1: and he had been outside the room ranting that morning.
[18:20] Speaker 1: She told the friend that Garnett had a bad night
[18:23] Speaker 1: and hadn't slept and that she reported it to the nurse,
[18:26] Speaker 1: but they didn't care. At close to 7.30 a.m., a
[18:30] Speaker 1: code bell went off and Dr. Goldsman ran as fast
[18:33] Speaker 1: as he could to Garnett's room. When he got there,
[18:36] Speaker 1: he saw an empty water bottle under the bed and
[18:38] Speaker 1: he told the nurse to grab it. The doctor had
[18:41] Speaker 1: given Lacey explicit instructions not to give her son any
[18:45] Speaker 1: water because it could cause brain damage. Why would a
[18:49] Speaker 1: mother defy that order and give her son a full
[18:51] Speaker 1: bottle of water? Lacey was ordered out of the room
[18:55] Speaker 1: and the doctor had to intubate Garnet because he had
[18:57] Speaker 1: stopped breathing. His eyes were fully dilated and weren't reacting
[19:02] Speaker 1: to light, meaning there was a problem with his brain stem.
[19:05] Speaker 1: Garnet was taken for a CAT scan and had more
[19:08] Speaker 1: blood work done. The water that had been given to
[19:11] Speaker 1: him by Lacey caused the high level of sodium in
[19:14] Speaker 1: his system to go to his brain and cause it
[19:16] Speaker 1: to swell. The swelling was so bad that by the
[19:19] Speaker 1: time Garnet had a CAT scan, it showed that he
[19:22] Speaker 1: was brain dead. His brain had nowhere to go when
[19:25] Speaker 1: it swelled inside his skull and pushed down, crushing the
[19:28] Speaker 1: brain stem. After Dr. Goldsman notified Lacey and her parents,
[19:33] Speaker 1: who had spent the last two days driving to be
[19:35] Speaker 1: with her, he went to the director of the child
[19:38] Speaker 1: abuse pediatric program and reported his suspicions. Lacey Spears had
[19:43] Speaker 1: poisoned her son with salt and caused his current brain death. Soon,
[19:48] Speaker 1: the Westchester County District Attorney Office was informed about the
[19:51] Speaker 1: situation and they notified the Westchester County Police. At the
[19:56] Speaker 1: same time, Dr. Goldsman called more than a dozen specialists
[19:59] Speaker 1: to examine Garnett Spears and make absolutely sure there was
[20:03] Speaker 1: no medical reason for the rise in sodium levels. When
[20:07] Speaker 1: Detective Dan Carfee spoke to hospital staff about the case
[20:10] Speaker 1: at hand, they made sure to reiterate that it was
[20:13] Speaker 1: medically impossible for the sodium levels in his system to
[20:16] Speaker 1: rise on their own. Someone had to have introduced salt
[20:20] Speaker 1: into his feeding tube and the only person who had
[20:22] Speaker 1: the opportunity was his mother. Westchester County Police and Ramapo Police,
[20:28] Speaker 1: who had jurisdiction over the area the fellowship community was located,
[20:32] Speaker 1: began working together. Ramapo Police Detective Kirk Budnick requested a
[20:37] Speaker 1: search warrant for Lacey's residence and went there to secure
[20:40] Speaker 1: the scene while they waited for the warrant to be issued.
[20:43] Speaker 1: At the same time, Detective Carfee interviewed Lacey in a
[20:46] Speaker 1: conference room at the hospital. During the interview, Lacey's unusual
[20:51] Speaker 1: emotion was noticeable. People always say that they noticed a
[20:55] Speaker 1: suspect's lack of emotion and then someone else says, everyone
[20:59] Speaker 1: grieves differently, but this was different. She would begin crying,
[21:03] Speaker 1: with no tears, but when she was asked a question,
[21:06] Speaker 1: she would immediately shift to not crying and calmly answer
[21:09] Speaker 1: the question. The detective said that everyone involved found it
[21:13] Speaker 1: very bizarre. After the interview, Lacey returned to the hospital
[21:17] Speaker 1: room where she took pictures of Garnet and posted them
[21:20] Speaker 1: to Facebook. She posted pictures of her brain-dead child laying
[21:24] Speaker 1: in a hospital bed hooked to life support and posted
[21:27] Speaker 1: them to Facebook. Many of her friends were horrified. When
[21:31] Speaker 1: Detective Budnick was finally able to search Lacey's apartment, he
[21:35] Speaker 1: found an IV stand with a bag of white fluid
[21:37] Speaker 1: still hanging on it and the pump. When he walked
[21:40] Speaker 1: into the kitchen, on the kitchen table was a picture
[21:43] Speaker 1: of garnet, several candles, some medications, and a large box
[21:47] Speaker 1: of sea salt. In the kitchen garbage can, they found
[21:51] Speaker 1: a used IV bag with the remnants of a white
[21:53] Speaker 1: fluid inside. They photographed the scene and collected 174 various
[21:59] Speaker 1: herbal medications and compounds, as well as two open 26-ounce
[22:04] Speaker 1: containers of salt and a syringe they found in the
[22:07] Speaker 1: living room. They discussed taking the IV bag full of
[22:10] Speaker 1: fluid hanging on the IV pole, but believed it was
[22:13] Speaker 1: just breast milk, so they didn't. Wouldn't you want to
[22:16] Speaker 1: test the liquid inside to see if it had a
[22:18] Speaker 1: high salt content? I mean, I'm no detective, but it
[22:22] Speaker 1: seems reasonable, right? The next morning, Garnett had the first
[22:27] Speaker 1: of two brain death examinations that were required before pronouncing
[22:31] Speaker 1: someone dead. When the doctor was finished, he told Lacey
[22:34] Speaker 1: that Garnett met the requirement for the first exam. At 10.18,
[22:39] Speaker 1: Lacey called a friend, Valerie Plosh, who lived at the
[22:42] Speaker 1: fellowship and asked her for a favor. She asked her
[22:45] Speaker 1: to go into her apartment, take the IV off of
[22:48] Speaker 1: the pole in the middle of the living room, and
[22:50] Speaker 1: throw it away. Not only that, but she didn't want
[22:53] Speaker 1: her to tell anyone about it. Despite this request being, uh,
[22:58] Speaker 1: what would you call it? Oh, super fucking shady, she agreed.
[23:02] Speaker 1: She didn't want to do it alone, so she ignored
[23:05] Speaker 1: the don't tell anyone instruction and brought a friend along
[23:08] Speaker 1: when she went to the apartment. Lacey lived in a
[23:11] Speaker 1: basement apartment, and they went to the upstairs tenant and
[23:14] Speaker 1: told them they needed to get something out of Lacey's unit.
[23:17] Speaker 1: The upstairs neighbor told them it was a bad idea
[23:20] Speaker 1: because the police had already come and photographed everything, but
[23:24] Speaker 1: Valerie went downstairs and got the IV bag anyway. She
[23:28] Speaker 1: put it in a black garbage bag and left the apartment.
[23:31] Speaker 1: Having at least a mild amount of sense about her,
[23:34] Speaker 1: Valerie did not throw the bag away. Instead, she hid
[23:38] Speaker 1: it in her closet for the time being. While she
[23:41] Speaker 1: was at work later that day, she began feeling guilty
[23:44] Speaker 1: about what she had done and she told another fellowship
[23:47] Speaker 1: member about the exchange with Lacey. The co-worker told her
[23:51] Speaker 1: to tell the fellowship leadership, which she did. One of
[23:54] Speaker 1: the leaders had her type up an email containing the
[23:57] Speaker 1: exact conversation she had with Lacey and then retrieved the
[24:00] Speaker 1: IV bag from her. They kept it locked in the
[24:03] Speaker 1: fellowship medical center until the following morning when they contacted
[24:07] Speaker 1: the Ramapo Police Department. Detectives picked up the IV bag
[24:11] Speaker 1: and locked it in evidence. After that, police got another
[24:14] Speaker 1: warrant specifically for the IV pole, the pump, and the
[24:18] Speaker 1: other IV bag that was in the garbage can. Dr.
[24:22] Speaker 1: Goldsman conducted the second brain death examination on Garnett and
[24:26] Speaker 1: pronounced him brain dead on January 23, 2014, at 10.20 a.m.
[24:28] Speaker 1: Soon after, he was taken off life support. When the
[24:36] Speaker 1: IV bags were sent for testing, their contents came back
[24:39] Speaker 1: with high levels of sodium. When Garnet's autopsy was conducted,
[24:43] Speaker 1: the medical examiner found no sign of past brain issues,
[24:47] Speaker 1: no tumors or hemorrhages. He inspected his esophagus, stomach, and
[24:53] Speaker 1: small and large intestines and found no evidence of disease.
[24:57] Speaker 1: Garnet did not have Crohn's disease or celiac disease. The
[25:02] Speaker 1: medical examiner determined the manner of death was homicide. By
[25:07] Speaker 1: the time the murder investigation was in full swing, Lacey
[25:10] Speaker 1: had already retained an attorney and was refusing to talk
[25:13] Speaker 1: to the police. She maintained her innocence and began claiming
[25:17] Speaker 1: that the hospital screwed up. The detective spent months working
[25:21] Speaker 1: up a complete timeline of Garnett's life. A process complicated
[25:25] Speaker 1: by the fact that Lacey had lived in three places
[25:28] Speaker 1: and taken her son to countless doctors with claims of
[25:31] Speaker 1: so many symptoms. They had collected Lacey's phone and laptop
[25:36] Speaker 1: as well as her sister's tablet and subpoenaed the records.
[25:40] Speaker 1: They also got a warrant for all of the data
[25:42] Speaker 1: from her social media account because she had started deleting things.
[25:46] Speaker 1: They eventually got a digital copy of the video from
[25:49] Speaker 1: Garnet's EEG. It was on this video that they watched
[25:53] Speaker 1: Lacey take a happy, healthy Garnet into the bathroom with
[25:57] Speaker 1: a feeding tube and a cup, then return with a
[25:59] Speaker 1: lethargic child who would soon begin to retch and cry
[26:03] Speaker 1: out in pain. Not once, but twice. Not only that,
[26:07] Speaker 1: But investigators were able to connect the time that Lacey
[26:11] Speaker 1: was searching the internet for information about sodium poisoning on
[26:14] Speaker 1: her smartphone to a point in the video where she's
[26:17] Speaker 1: laying in bed with Garnet. She's laying in his hospital bed,
[26:21] Speaker 1: searching for information on how to kill him. On June 16, 2014,
[26:28] Speaker 1: Lacey Spears was arrested and charged with second-degree murder and
[26:32] Speaker 1: first-degree manslaughter. Lacey pleaded not guilty to both charges. She
[26:37] Speaker 1: continued to deny that she had anything to do with
[26:40] Speaker 1: her son's death, but the prosecutor presents a ton of
[26:43] Speaker 1: evidence that says otherwise. When the trial started, the prosecution
[26:48] Speaker 1: laid out the timeline. Lacey had already been watching other
[26:52] Speaker 1: people's children and was poisoning them, children who all miraculously
[26:56] Speaker 1: got better as soon as they stopped being cared for
[26:59] Speaker 1: by Lacey. When she had her own baby, a baby
[27:02] Speaker 1: that was born perfectly healthy, she kept him sick because
[27:06] Speaker 1: it got her attention. She refused his father, his real father,
[27:11] Speaker 1: Chris Hill, any custody so she could play the part
[27:14] Speaker 1: of the poor single mother with a sick kid. She
[27:18] Speaker 1: went so far as to manipulate doctors into implanting an
[27:21] Speaker 1: unnecessary feeding tube into her baby's stomach. She put him
[27:26] Speaker 1: through unneeded surgery so she would be able to control
[27:29] Speaker 1: what went into his system, and it worked out great
[27:32] Speaker 1: for her. She'd add salt to his feedings and she
[27:35] Speaker 1: would have a continually sick baby that would tug at
[27:38] Speaker 1: everybody's heartstrings. But then Garnet got older. He could eat
[27:42] Speaker 1: on his own and talk, and people were noticing that
[27:45] Speaker 1: he was not the sick child that she was describing.
[27:48] Speaker 1: She knew she wouldn't be able to control her son's
[27:50] Speaker 1: diet much longer, and soon he might tell someone what
[27:54] Speaker 1: she had been doing. so she killed him. She overdosed
[27:58] Speaker 1: him on salt and brought him into the hospital, but
[28:01] Speaker 1: he got better. Coincidentally, right after Lacey learned that Garnet
[28:05] Speaker 1: was going to be discharged, he got sick again. She
[28:09] Speaker 1: was caught on camera giving him salt in the bathroom.
[28:12] Speaker 1: The prosecution showed the video. They point out how Lacey
[28:17] Speaker 1: came back out of the bathroom, put the nurse's call
[28:19] Speaker 1: button down closer to her, and watched Garnet. Not like
[28:23] Speaker 1: she's casually watching her sick child. She's watching him because
[28:27] Speaker 1: she's waiting for something. Then he gets sick and she
[28:31] Speaker 1: goes right for the call button that she had conveniently
[28:34] Speaker 1: known to put within reach. The nurse comes in and
[28:37] Speaker 1: Lacey plays the part of the concerned mother. But again,
[28:41] Speaker 1: Garnet got better. Hospital staff would testify that after that point,
[28:46] Speaker 1: she became very interested in his sodium level. She was
[28:50] Speaker 1: learning that she wasn't giving him enough salt. So again,
[28:54] Speaker 1: she's caught on camera, going into the bathroom, giving him
[28:58] Speaker 1: more sodium. This time, Garnet got real sick, and when
[29:02] Speaker 1: the nurse came in, she noticed that the port to
[29:05] Speaker 1: Garnet's feeding tube was open. It hadn't been open the
[29:08] Speaker 1: last time the nurse was in there, so within that time,
[29:12] Speaker 1: someone opened it and forgot to close it. Curious. Garnet's
[29:17] Speaker 1: transferred to the PICU, but still, he gets better. So
[29:22] Speaker 1: despite being told not to give Garnet water because it
[29:26] Speaker 1: could give him brain damage, she gives him water and
[29:29] Speaker 1: essentially finally kills him, her own son. Then when her
[29:34] Speaker 1: son is declared brain dead, what does she do? She
[29:38] Speaker 1: calls a friend and asks, her to remove evidence from
[29:41] Speaker 1: her apartment. Evidence that just happens to prove that she
[29:45] Speaker 1: was poisoning her son with salt. Lacey goes on to
[29:49] Speaker 1: claim that she never asked Valerie to go into her
[29:51] Speaker 1: apartment and throw away the IV bag. She also said
[29:55] Speaker 1: that she never put salt in the IV bag. This
[29:58] Speaker 1: is where things become so unlikely there's no other option
[30:02] Speaker 1: besides them being true. In order for Lacey to be innocent,
[30:07] Speaker 1: Garnet has to have only ever been sick in the
[30:10] Speaker 1: presence of her. He has to have only ever refused
[30:13] Speaker 1: to eat in the presence of her. It has to
[30:16] Speaker 1: be a massive coincidence that Garnet was happy and healthy
[30:20] Speaker 1: before going into the bathroom with Lacey, and just happened
[30:24] Speaker 1: to get sick just minutes after leaving the bathroom, twice
[30:28] Speaker 1: in a row. Her own friend has to be lying
[30:31] Speaker 1: about being asked to throw away evidence, and someone else
[30:35] Speaker 1: has to have put salt into not only the IV
[30:38] Speaker 1: bag that was on the pole in the living room,
[30:41] Speaker 1: but the other one that was found in the garbage can.
[30:44] Speaker 1: This is all a massive coincidence, and what's also a
[30:47] Speaker 1: massive coincidence is that she just happens to be a
[30:50] Speaker 1: compulsive liar, but she's not lying about this. She lied
[30:55] Speaker 1: about who Garnet's father was, and she lied multiple times
[30:58] Speaker 1: about not only what medical conditions Garnet had, but what
[31:02] Speaker 1: medical conditions she had. She also conducts several internet searches
[31:07] Speaker 1: regarding sodium poisoning and lethal doses of sodium in children.
[31:11] Speaker 1: Lacey is one of those obviously guilty people who can
[31:15] Speaker 1: sit there with a straight face, listen to all of
[31:17] Speaker 1: the evidence that proves they're guilty, then shrug and go, huh,
[31:21] Speaker 1: I didn't do it. They're comfortable claiming that these massive
[31:25] Speaker 1: coincidences must have actually happened. To this day, Lacey maintains
[31:31] Speaker 1: that she didn't kill her child, and she'll actually never
[31:34] Speaker 1: admit she did. She's not capable. Her mental illness makes
[31:38] Speaker 1: her unable to ever admit the truth. Like many other
[31:42] Speaker 1: narcissistic murderers, it's like there's an anchor connected to their
[31:46] Speaker 1: brain that will not allow them to admit what they did.
[31:49] Speaker 1: They will go to their grave, adamantly denying they committed
[31:52] Speaker 1: the crime that the evidence proves they committed. Lacey's second-degree
[31:57] Speaker 1: murder charge was for depraved indifference, which means Garnet's death
[32:01] Speaker 1: was caused because Lacey didn't care what happened to him.
[32:05] Speaker 1: Her defense claims that she couldn't be guilty of depraved
[32:08] Speaker 1: indifference because she was the only one who was trying
[32:11] Speaker 1: to get him treated, showing that she did care. That's
[32:14] Speaker 1: just stupid. She was taking him to get treated for
[32:17] Speaker 1: an illness she was causing, you dope. That's the whole
[32:21] Speaker 1: point of depraved indifference. She was doing something that caused
[32:26] Speaker 1: him to be sick and didn't care if it killed him.
[32:29] Speaker 1: On March 2nd, 2015... Lacey was found guilty of second-degree murder,
[32:34] Speaker 1: and at sentencing, the judge expressed his disappointment in her
[32:38] Speaker 1: unwillingness to admit her mistakes, but said that the fact
[32:41] Speaker 1: that it was clear she suffered from Munchausen syndrome by
[32:44] Speaker 1: proxy was a reason for his leniency. The maximum sentence
[32:49] Speaker 1: was 25 years to life, but he sentenced her to
[32:52] Speaker 1: 20 years to life. He told her that he hoped
[32:55] Speaker 1: she would be open to getting treatment for her condition.
[32:58] Speaker 1: It seems unlikely that Lacey will seek treatment for her condition, though.
[33:02] Speaker 1: She did an interview with 48 Hours after her trial
[33:05] Speaker 1: and claimed that she doesn't have Munchausen Syndrome because she
[33:09] Speaker 1: was evaluated by a psychiatrist and they determined that she
[33:12] Speaker 1: didn't suffer from any mental illness. But that was only
[33:16] Speaker 1: to determine if she was fit to stand trial and
[33:18] Speaker 1: that she couldn't plead not guilty by reason of insanity.
[33:22] Speaker 1: That doctor wasn't tasked with determining if Lacey suffered from
[33:25] Speaker 1: Munchausen Syndrome and if he did, she would have been
[33:28] Speaker 1: evaluated for that separately. Every expert on Munchausen's syndrome by
[33:33] Speaker 1: proxy said that Lacey is a textbook case. She meets
[33:37] Speaker 1: almost every marker that are known signs of the syndrome.
[33:41] Speaker 1: She can't ever seek treatment for it, though, because if
[33:44] Speaker 1: she does, that means she admits she has it, and
[33:47] Speaker 1: she admits that she actually killed her child. Lacey Spears
[33:51] Speaker 1: will be eligible for parole in 2034, but if she
[33:55] Speaker 1: continues to deny her guilt, she will likely not be approved,
[33:59] Speaker 1: at least not right away. Lacey spent her life seeking
[34:03] Speaker 1: sympathy from other people. She started by creating lies about herself.
[34:08] Speaker 1: Then she started making other people's children sick. She eventually
[34:12] Speaker 1: went on to have her own child with the explicit
[34:15] Speaker 1: purpose of keeping them sick so she could get sympathy
[34:18] Speaker 1: from other people, not just harming them once or even occasionally,
[34:23] Speaker 1: but causing him immense suffering for his entire life before
[34:27] Speaker 1: she finally killed him. Lacey Spears is a monster. If
[34:33] Speaker 1: you're the victim of domestic abuse, please reach out to
[34:36] Speaker 1: someone for help. Talk to your local shelter or call
[34:39] Speaker 1: the National Domestic Abuse Hotline at 1-800-799-SAFE. That's 1-800-799-7233. Or
[34:41] Speaker 1: you can go to thehotline.org to chat with someone online.
[34:51] Speaker 1: This website is set up so that at any time,
[34:53] Speaker 1: hitting the escape key twice will take you to a
[34:55] Speaker 1: Google search page. That way, if your abuser is nearby,
[34:59] Speaker 1: you won't get caught seeking help. If you're having feelings
[35:02] Speaker 1: of harm in yourself or someone else, or even just
[35:04] Speaker 1: need someone to talk to, please contact your local mental
[35:07] Speaker 1: health facility, call 911, or call Mental Health America, who
[35:11] Speaker 1: operate the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at 1-800-273-TALK. That's 1-800-273-8255.
[35:19] Speaker 1: They're available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
[35:22] Speaker 1: Thanks so much for letting me tell you this story.
[35:25] Speaker 1: If you enjoyed it, subscribe on whatever platform you're on,
[35:27] Speaker 1: hit like, rate us, or leave us a comment. You
[35:30] Speaker 1: can also check out our other show, Somewhere Sinister, on
[35:33] Speaker 1: YouTube or anywhere you listen to podcasts. If you'd like
[35:36] Speaker 1: to support the show, check out our new merch at Teespring.
[35:39] Speaker 1: The link is in the description. Thanks again, and be safe.

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