A woman who poisoned her five-year-old son with a near-lethal dose of sodium after blogging about his health problems had an adverse effect on the well-being of several other children before she became a mother, a bombshell book reveals.
Lacey Spears, who was sentenced to 20 years to life after she was convicted of murdering her son Garnett Paul Spears, displayed classic signs of the mental illness Munchausen by proxy syndrome, experts said.
Spears has insisted on her innocence and denied having the psychiatric disorder, which causes a parent or caretaker to purposefully hurt their child to get attention.
But in his new book, My Sweet Angel, author John Glatt paints a chilling portrait of Spears, who he claims exhibited a pattern of behavior with other children before she deliberately plotted her own son's tragic passing.
Before Spears started detailing her son's health troubles on Facebook, she preyed on three different single mothers in Decateur, Alabama, and maneuvered herself as an eager caretaker, the new book claims.
Each of the kids under her care became sickly and developed severe and chronic ear infections that involved pus discharge, according to Glatt, who researched Spears' story for 18 months.
He also noted the children's health improved once she was no longer in contact with them.
Her son Garnett was born healthy in 2008, but he soon fell ill, requiring emergency attention for projectile vomiting, seizure-like symptoms, bleeding ear infections and digestive issues.
Prosecutors said that there was evidence that Spears had taken her son to 20 different medical facilities over the course of his life without relaying information between each doctor.
The Florida Department of Children and Families revealed they had a file on Spears since 2011, when an anonymous call voicing concerns about her parenting was made to their abuse hotline.
Spears, who chronicled Garnett's illnesses on Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, and a personal blog called 'Garnett's Journey', still managed to convince a doctor to perform a procedure that would prevent the boy from vomiting.
She then convinced a doctor to insert a gastric tube, claiming Garnett had problems eating, even though friends often noted he had a healthy appetite, Glatt wrote.
In 2012, Spears moved to a commune in Chestnut Ridge, New York, called the Fellowship Community, where more than 100 members live an organic and natural lifestyle.
Spears was welcomed with open arms in the community, where people showered her and her sickly son with attention.
About two years later, Spears force-fed Garnett heavy concentrations of sodium, snapping pictures of him for Facebook on their way to the hospital, according to the new book.
The boy appeared to recover in the hospital, but Spears went to the bathroom with Garnett two more times, force feeding him until he retched and screamed in pain, Glatt wrote.
The boy's faltering health was carefully documented on social media.
Garnett was eventually airlifted to a children's hospital, where doctors were shocked at his sodium levels.
Dr. Carey Goltzman cautioned Spears against giving Garnett any water while his sodium levels were being lowered and the boy eventually stabilized.
But Goltzman was soon alerted of an emergency, and the doctor found an empty Poland Spring bottle under Garnett's bed while the boy's brain swelled so much it herniated in his skull.
Spears shared her son's death on Facebook, and tried to access money in a PayPal account a friend set up to help pay for Garnett's medical bills.
Prosecutors later argued Spears' web searches for 'dangers of high sodium' and 'hypernatremia' nine days before her son's death proves she planned the attack.
Assistant District Attorney Doreen Lloyd also said in court that the mother calmly 'watched and waited' for the poisoning to take effect, summoning help only after he began writhing and retching.
Spears has maintains her son was sick and that doctors could not find out what was wrong with him.
But tests showed the boy was perfectly healthy, according to Glatt's new book.