Karen McCarron

Karen McCarron is an Illinois physician who has admitted to smothering her autistic daughter Katherine 'Katie' McCarron to death. A grand jury indicted her on two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of obstructing justice and one count of concealment of a homicidal death. The trial is scheduled for December 2007.

Timeline
Karen and Paul McCarron's first child was Katherine, diagnosed with autism in 2004. In September of that year, Paul and Katie moved to North Carolina to live with her paternal grandmother. This move was made so Katie could attend Mariposa School in Cary, North Carolina, a special school for autistic children. Paul and Katie returned home to Illinois on holidays. Karen, who was a pathologist with the Peoria-Tazewell Pathology Group, stayed in Peoria with their younger daughter Emily, and visited North Carolina occasionally.

After 20 months, the family decided to return full-time to Illinois. Paul McCarron took Katie to their home in Illinois on May 3, 2006. On May 7, 2006, Paul returned to North Carolina to fulfill the last three weeks of his work commitment. Katie remained in Illinois under the care of her mother and maternal grandparents, along with her younger sister. On the afternoon of May 13, 2006, Karen allegedly killed Katie by suffocating her in a plastic bag. In the very early hours of Sunday morning, Karen McCarron tried to overdose on over-the-counter medication.

Reaction
News articles and weblogs have emphasized the difficulties in raising a child with autism, and some suggested that McCarron may have been stressed by lack of support and dealing with Katie's autism. Katie's grandfather, Michael McCarron, said: This was not about autism. This was not about a lack of support. Some autistics have rallied in favor of a conviction of McCarron and Katie's death garnered intense scrutiny within the autism rights movement and among disability advocates. Autism Hub held a memorial on May 24 and the disability rights group Not Dead Yet led the charge to reveal the facts of the case. The local media is responding to advocates who criticize them for sympathic reporting towards alleged perpetrators.