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Missouri Mom Accused Of Repeatedly Poisoning Child

By Chelsea Hoffman
Published on: 07:01 PST, Nov 9, 2015

A Missouri mom has been arrested for crimes against her own 9-year-old child, and the details surrounding her case are shocking. The Huffington Post reports that 35-year-old Rachel Kinsella has been charged with felony endangerment of the welfare of a child, which could have been a lot worse if she had successfully killed her son.

Kinsella had been under investigation since earlier this year after hospital workers had become suspicious that her child was the victim of medical child abuse. The 9-year-old boy had been treated for a prescription drug overdose on multiple occasions in 2014 in at least two different hospitals. It was discovered that the Missouri mom was having her child treated at two different hospitals in order to obtain medication from the two different sources — neither of which were aware of this. St. Louis County Prosecutor Bob McCullogh shared some comments about the incident.

“The child, when he would [be] present at the hospital in very serious condition, would get much better while he was there. When he was returned to her custody he got sick again. And apparently was being treated by two different doctors, apparently unknown to each other.”

Authorities in Missouri believe that Kinsella has exhibited typical signs of a mother with a condition called Munchausen syndrome by proxy. In other words, she has allegedly kept her son sick so she could get attention. She claims that the frequent poisoning of her 9-year-old child was done by accident, but investigators say that the frequency of the incidents and the amounts of drugs found in his system support their allegation that she has been doing it completely on purpose.

The New York Daily News says that the prescription drugs she allegedly used have not been disclosed by authorities or hospital workers, but it has been revealed that she had driven as many as 220 miles out of her way to obtain the drugs from multiple sources. She had allegedly obtained drugs used to poison her son from both St. Louis Children’s Hospital and Children’s Mercy of Kansas City.

Rachel Kinsella was arrested and held on bond in the amount of $50,000. However, she reportedly posted the amount and was released from jail. She has been served with a no-contact order regarding her 9-year-old son. She is not allowed to have any contact with the alleged victim until notice from the court. Meanwhile, her attorney denies the charges against her.

This is not the first time a mother has attracted attention for similar crimes. Earlier this year, a woman named Lacey Spears was convicted in the poisoning death of her 5-year-old son. The woman became known in media reports as the Munchausen mom, who gradually killed her child by poisoning him in order to keep him sick. Her motive was all surrounding her need for attention from mommy bloggers on the internet. Her blog documenting her son’s illnesses still remains on the internet as a testament to the attention she craved, sought, and received while poisoning her child to death.

In 2011, an Arizona mom was arrested and accused of poisoning her baby. After treating her baby for at least nine different infections, doctors began to suspect that 21-year-old Bianca Montano was subjecting the infant to medical child abuse. In a case of alleged Munchausen syndrome by Proxy, Montano was accused of poisoning the young baby in order to get attention from others. There have also been many other cases over the years involving the medical abuse of children for attention.

If the Missouri mom in this latest story is found guilty of the crime she is accused of committing, she could lose permanent custody of her 9-year-old son. She could also face time in prison along with a large fine.

[Image via St. Louis County Jail mugshot]

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