A 40-year-old mother, Kelly Brown, is facing manslaughter charges after her 3-year-old daughter and a dog were found dead inside her locked car, as per police. Allegedly, Brown claimed that she had fallen into a river at the time of the tragic incident.
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According to a Maine State Police release, the incident occurred on Saturday, August 9. Penobscot County Sheriff’s Office (PCSO) deputies responded to a Milford business and located a 3-year-old girl, Fiona, and a small dog dead inside a vehicle. They were pronounced dead at the scene.
Deputies located the vehicle’s owner, Brown, who was near the scene, and detained her. According to the MSP release, authorities had been trying to locate Brown and Fiona after family members contacted them days before the fatal incident.
Reported Missing, Hallucinations
As reported by News Center Maine, Brown, Fiona, and the dog, 13-year-old Penelope, were to visit family in Maine. They had been traveling from Pennsylvania. However, they never arrived, and Brown’s mother reported her daughter and granddaughter missing on Thursday, August 7.
Documents obtained by the outlet revealed that Brown’s family members had heard from her that she was suffering from hallucinations. Reportedly, she had been hearing voices, which were telling her what to do.
Brown allegedly told police during an interview that she and her daughter had been cleaning up trash. While she left her daughter and dog inside the car, she attempted to pick up the trash. However, she suffered an accident, according to her.
Kelly Brown allegedly claimed that she had slipped into the Penobscot River and had been swept away by the current. Meanwhile, Fiona and Penelope were left inside the vehicle and suffocated to death.
Despite her claim, police officers said, as per News Center Maine, that she was not wet when she was found.
Furthermore, her alleged claim didn’t align with what authorities found on surveillance footage.
Surveillance Footage
As reported by Boston.com, citing an affidavit, the footage shows Brown exiting the vehicle and disappearing at around 5:56 a.m. on August 9. She is seen returning to the scene at around 8:30 p.m.
There, she made the river claim to the police, and even showed injuries she reportedly sustained, as per the affidavit. Furthermore, she allegedly claimed that her clothes were dry because she had fallen into the river “hours” before.
When Brown found out about the deaths of her daughter and dog, she “began to scream,” saying that they were “her world.”
Kelly Brown is charged with manslaughter. As per WABI, her cash bail was set at $50,000, and she was ordered to have no contact with children under the age of 18.
Fiona’s cause and manner of death were pending as of August 11. However, the Deputy Chief Medical Examiner stated that hyperthermia, that is, abnormally high body temperature, was the most likely cause of death.