More of this vile tale here:Colorado mom charged with murder and profiting off fabricated illnesses in Make-A-Wish daughter's death
(CNN)Olivia Gant was a local celebrity, a terminally ill 7-year-old who spent her final months riding along with police and firefighters and taking on criminals at a Denver-area school as "the bat princess."
But it was all part of a lie, prosecutors say.
The girl was never terminally ill; it was her mother who killed her, a grand jury has found.
In an indictment unsealed this week, Olivia's mother -- Kelly Turner, aka Kelly Gant -- is charged with two counts of first-degree murder in her daughter's 2017 death. She is charged with two counts because Colorado law has a special provision when someone in a position of trust is charged with killing a child younger than 12.
Turner also faces a count of child abuse and 10 other charges related to her alleged bilking of Medicaid, hospitals and charities, including the Make-A-Wish Foundation, out of more than a half million dollars.
Following last week's indictment, which came on the heels of a yearlong investigation, the Douglas County Sheriff's Office arrested Turner on Friday at a hotel in Glendale, Colorado.
Doctors' doubts spur probe
Suspicions first arose when Turner brought Olivia's big sister to Children's Hospital Colorado in Aurora and informed a doctor that the older daughter, a minor whose name is redacted from the indictment, had been treated for cancer when the family lived in Texas, the indictment states.
The doctor confirmed this was not true, according to the indictment. Hospital officials later found articles, blogs, social media posts and news stories in which Turner said the older daughter suffered from various conditions, including bone pain, that weren't supported by medical records, the indictment says.
In an October 2018 interview with detectives, the girl said she'd had an unknown type of cancer. How did she know? Her mother had told her so, she told investigators, according to the indictment.
A caseworker conducted a test in which the girl was separated from Turner to determine if she actually had medical issues. Once separated, the older daughter had no medical issues or complaints of pain, according to the indictment.
This raised concerns about Olivia's death, which hospital officials told investigators was "somewhat controversial with different doctors," the indictment says.
"There is a concern that (Turner) has lied about the children's medical conditions and therefore may have caused harm to the children and or caused them to have significant medical procedures," the indictment says, conveying doctors' reports to investigators.
The doctors also worried that Turner was concocting the children's conditions for social and monetary gain, the indictment says.
Talking to investigators, Turner "specifically denied ever fabricating medical conditions for her children."
Public defender Ara Ohanian told CNN he had no comment on his client's case.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/23/us/color ... index.html
Unfortunately, Colorado does not have the death penalty...
