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A video from the 2014 Garnett Spears case is resurfacing and going viral after a TikTok account, Investigation Discovery, posted the video on the platform. Having received 17 million views in just 1 day, the case is back in the spotlight.
The video shows five-year-old Garnett Spears, who was declared dead after his sodium levels increased abruptly in 2014. However, as authorities investigated the case, through CCTV footage, they found that Garnett's mother, Lacey, was the one who poisoned her son.
Lacey Spears was found guilty of second-degree murder and was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison.
Why did Lacey poison her own child Garnett Spears?
Lacey Spears was born and raised in Alabama and was a single mother to Garnett, who was born in 2008. According to sources close to Lacey and Garnett Spears, the former often claimed that Garnett's father was a police officer who was killed in a car crash. However, it was later revealed that Garnett's biological father was a former friend of Lacey's who has denied meeting Garnett.
Sources have also claimed that Lacey had a habit and history of lying.
Lacey operated a Twitter handle that went by the name 'Garnett's Mommy' where she posted regular updates about the child and how much she loved him. However, the Twitter handle also witnessed the numerous health issues that Garnett had as Lacey documented it all on social media.
Through a few posts, Lacey opened up about Garnett having severe ear infections and being unable to eat. She claimed that it led to him drastically losing weight. Lacey also said that the child often had a high fever, suffered from seizures and had digestive problems.
In 2014, when he was nearly six-years-old, Garnett Spears passed away due to a sudden illness.
Just days after the child's death, doctors and hospital staff realized that something wasn't right with the child as his sodium levels suddenly shot up. However, no one questioned or doubted Lacey since she seemed like a doting mother who did everything she could for her child.
Thus, it came as a surprise when a jury convicted Spears of poisoning her own child to death with heavy concentrations of sodium through his stomach tube. The incident came to light after some CCTV footage showed Lacey coming out of a bathroom with a white cup of salt in her hand. She was then seen attaching the cup to Garnett Spears' G-Tube.
Medical experts suggested that Lacey Spears had a rare psychological disorder called Munchausen by proxy. It is a disorder where a caretaker or guardian harms a child on purpose in order to gain sympathy or attention.
Marc Feldman of the University of Alabama spoke about the disorder, which is now called Factitious Disorder Imposed on Another (FDIA), and said:
“These mothers tend to be psychopathic. They don’t experience guilt and they lack empathy.”
Lacey's trial lasted for 14 days and the jury said:
“In many respects, your crime is unfathomable in its cruelty. It gives rise to many questions I quite frankly don’t have answers for. This was not a spontaneous or ill-conceived solitary act. It was a serious and orchestrated series of actions that really shock the conscience.”
Where is Lacey Spears now?
Lacey is currently imprisoned at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women in Westchester County, New York. According to her inmate record, the now 33-year-old will be released by June 2034.
