GRANTS
PASS, Ore. (AP) — A woman who appealed for money online to help care
for her autistic son and disabled husband has been accused of throwing
her 6-year-old boy to his death off an historic bridge on the Oregon
coast.
Police
said Jillian Meredith McCabe, 34, called 911 from the bridge in Newport
as darkness fell Monday to report what she had done and waited until
police arrived.
"I
just threw my son over the Yaquina Bay Bridge," McCabe told the
dispatcher, according to a probable cause affidavit filed Tuesday.
She
described her son, London Grey McCabe, and the clothes he was wearing,
saying he was in the water and gone. Later that night, a body was
reported in the water at a bayside resort about a mile from the bridge,
and police said they confirmed it was the kindergartener.
"It's a great tragedy," said the boy's great aunt, Tanya McCabe.
Andrew
McCabe confirmed Tuesday that his sister-in-law had written an appeal
on YouCaring.com, a crowdfunding website. In it she described caring for
her autistic son and her husband, Matt, who has been unable to work
since developing multiple sclerosis and a mass on his brain stem.
The appeal ended eight months ago, after raising $6,831 toward a goal of $50,000.
"If
you are a praying person, pray for us," Jillian McCabe wrote. "I love
my husband and he has taken care of myself and my son for years and
years and now it's time for me to take the helm. I am scared and I am
reaching out."
Andrew
McCabe also confirmed that Jillian McCabe had posted YouTube videos,
one showing her husband in a hospital bed and their son pushing a button
to raise and lower it.
Another
shows her son sitting in a hammock, smiling with a cup of juice and
engrossed in an iPad. When she asks if he is happy, he says nothing.
When she tells him to say "help" if he wants a push in the hammock, he
says, "help." Still another video shows the boy holding a stuffed toy
lion and throwing coins in an indoor fountain to make a wish.
Jillian
McCabe appeared by video in Lincoln County Circuit Court in Newport,
where she entered no pleas on charges of murder, aggravated murder and
manslaughter, the court reported. Two Portland attorneys were appointed
to represent her. Christopher Clayhold and Deborah Burdzick did not
immediately return calls for comment. The aggravated murder charge,
which carries a potential death penalty, was filed because the boy was
under 14 years old.
Police
said she was from Seal Rock, south of Newport, but Andrew McCabe said
they had lived in Hood River. He said his brother had a business doing
email campaigns until he became disabled.
Police are asking anyone who saw the woman and child on the bridge to call detectives.
In
the affidavit, a police officer writes that Jillian McCabe was still
talking on her cellphone when a sheriff's deputy walked up to her on the
bridge.
Another
officer says he saw a woman matching Jillian McCabe's description
carrying a boy matching London's description on the bridge shortly after
6 p.m., and thought it odd because the boy was, "too big to be
carried," according to the affidavit.
The
Yaquina Bay arched bridge, one of the most famous on the Oregon coast,
opened in 1936. It's listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
It carries traffic for U.S. Highway 101 and rises more than 100 feet
above the water.
In
2009, a woman threw her two young children off a bridge in Portland,
killing her 4-year-old son. A daughter, then 7 years old, survived.
Amanda Stott-Smith was sentenced in 2010 to at least 35 years in prison.
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