Mom pleads guilty to faking 7-year-old’s ‘terminal’ illness, Colorado officials say

A Douglas County, Colorado, mother accused of subjecting her 7-year-old daughter, who died in 2017, to unnecessary medical procedures has pleaded guilty in the case, prosecutors said.

Kelly Renee Turner, 43, pleaded guilty on Tuesday, Jan. 4, to child abuse negligently causing death, theft of between $100,000 and $1 million and charitable fraud in a plea agreement, the District Attorney’s Office for the 18th Judicial District said in a statement.

Turner will be sentenced Feb. 9, the office said.

She is accused of falsely claiming her daughter, Olivia Gant, was terminally ill with failing intestines to raise donations before Olivia died in August 2017, KMGH reported.

Prosecutors said Turner took her daughter to a hospital more than 1,000 times over five years for fabricated illnesses, KDVR reported.

Doctors became suspicious when Turner later brought her older daughter to the same hospital for “bone pain,” leading to an investigation and her arrest in 2019, KCNC reported.

An autopsy of Olivia’s exhumed body was inconclusive, according to the station.

This story was originally published January 4, 2022 at 2:29 PM with the headline "Mom pleads guilty to faking 7-year-old’s ‘terminal’ illness, Colorado officials say."