Woman (Valeria Maxon) Treated for Mental Disorders in Florida Clinics Kills Child; Husband Found Guilty of Second Degree Murder

Valeria Maxon and her husband lived in Mansfield, Texas, with their son, Alex. In 2006, Alex’s doctor told the Maxons that the child was developmentally disabled. The couple took the child to a Florida child therapy center.
It was at this time that Ms. Maxon started showing signs of mental illness, saying that Alex was dying and it was her fault because she was a bad mother. She was hospitalized for several days in Florida until her husband released her to return to Texas. After returning home, she became more delusional, saying that she was possessed by Satan and that their son was the Antichrist.
Both Ms. Maxon’s sister and one of her psychiatric doctors warned Maxon not to leave Alex alone with his mother. But in 2008 he left the house for an hour and half; when he returned home his wife informed him that she had drowned Alex in the hot tub. Ms. Maxon was arrested and charged with capital murder. She was found not guilty by reason of insanity, and was sent to a maximum security mental hospital.
That same week, Maxon was charged with abandoning his son and placing him in imminent danger of death or injury. Prosecutors argued that a reasonable person would not have left the baby with his mother when she was so clearly mentally ill. Jurors deliberated just over a half an hour before returning a guilty verdict. The maximum sentence for second degree murder in Texas is twenty years in prison.
Read more about this sad case at Mansfield father found guilty in wife's drowning death of baby.







Shannon Dedrick, the Florida seven-month-old who was reported missing from her home over a week ago, was found alive recently. The girl was found lying hidden in a small box under the bed of her babysitter / step-aunt, Susan Baker. Shannon appeared to be in good health. According to police, Ms. Baker had asked the child’s mother, Crystina Lynn Mercer, to give her permanent custody of the child, and Ms. Mercer handed the girl over to her.






