Mommy Blogger Jillian McCabe Throws 6-Year-Old Son With Autism Off Bridge Because Voices Told Her To
Oregon police have arrested Jillian McCabe, 34, who is accused of throwing her 6-year-old son London off of the Yaquina Bay Bridge in Newport. McCabe, a former mommy blogger, made a 911 call from her cellphone while on the bridge this past Monday and told the dispatchers, "I just threw my son over the Yaquina Bay Bridge." After McCabe’s husband, Matthew, developed multiple sclerosis, she claims to have struggled with caring for London, who suffered from non-verbal, severe autism.
“We implore the news media to remember that London, and not his mother, is the victim of a terrible crime,” the Autism Self Advocacy Network said in a statement. “Frequently, the murders of people like London are made out to be due to the ‘stress’ they allegedly put on their caregivers, and sympathy is extended to their murderers. We urge the media to remember how reprehensible it is for a parent or caregiver to kill a child, and to avoid framing murdered children as burdens on their family. London was 6 years old. His family reports that he loved hats, loved his parents, and was ‘all smiles.’ His murder is a tragedy, and we mourn and call for justice.”
Newport Police Chief Mark Miranda told the Oregonian McCabe now claims she heard voices that told her to kill London. According to her family, McCabe suffered from mental health issues in the past, but her relatives were unable to find her the help she needed. Although she had expressed thoughts of causing harm to herself in the past, her family did not fear they had anything to worry about when it came to her son.
"Jillian really struggled with her mental health, and I know she was just out of her mind when this happened," Tanya McCabe, London's great-aunt, told NBC News. "Jillian was always so patient with him, and loving. She really had a lot of compassion for his condition. When he was screaming at the top of his lungs, which was the only way he could communicate, she didn't get upset at all. She would calmly comfort him, and I was amazed at how patient she was.
McCabe chronicled the hardships of both her son’s autism and her husband’s MS diagnosis on YouTube, Facebook, and her blog AutisticLondon.com. She also started an account with the crowdfunding website YouCaring.com to help raise money for her husband’s condition. Although her goal of $50,000 had reached $6,821, her crowdfunding account and blog has since been shut down. In one of her archived blog posts, she listed things that stop her “from pulling a Thelma & Louise.”
McCabe has been arrested for aggravated murder, murder, and first-degree manslaughter. She is currently being held on $750,000 bail. Following her refusal to enter a plea at her court hearing this past Tuesday, her next hearing scheduled for Nov. 12.