Mom faces federal murder charge in 1-year-old daughter's death
SEATTLE - A mother has now been charged in federal court with second-degree murder in the death of her 19-month-old daughter in a parked car on the Tulalip reservation.
Court papers filed in the case say Christina D. Carlson, 36, left Chantel Craig and a 2-year-old daughter alone on Oct. 8 in the car in which they were living. The younger daughter later was pronounced dead, and the 2-year-old required hospitalization.
Christina Carlson initially was charged in Tulalip Tribal Court, but the charges were transferred Thursday to U.S. District Court in Seattle on Thursday. In addition to murder, Carlson also faces two counts of criminal mistreatment.
On Friday a U.S. magistrate judge ordered Carlson held in federal detention. If convicted, she could face a maximum sentence of life in prison.
An autopsy showed Carlson's daughter Chantel suffered from dehydration and severe malnutrition, weighing just 18 pounds with prominent ribs and a sunken abdomen. She was found covered in urine and feces, with maggots in her diaper and lice in her hair.
Her older sister was found in a similar condition - pale but still alive - strapped into a car seat with abrasions on her skin and bleeding wounds. Her blanket was found to be infested with maggot larva and bed bugs.
Officers responded to the scene after receiving a 911 call from another woman who lives nearby. When they arrived, they found Christina Carlson performing CPR on her younger daughter, who was lying on the ground in front of the car.
An investigation found that neither daughter's diaper had been changed for days, and that the little girls had been mostly confined to the car - much of the time in warm weather with the windows rolled up, according to court documents.
Carlson told investigators that she had run out of diapers, but officers found a full package of unused diapers in the trunk of the car.
Witnesses also told investigators that Carlson and her daughters had been living in her car, that she never fed the girls anything but 2 percent milk, and that she smoked opiates in her car while her daughters were there, court documents say.
At the time of Chantel's death, state and tribal welfare workers had been trying to find Carlson for months after receiving reports that she had been severely mistreating and neglecting her daughters.
Court papers filed in the case say Christina D. Carlson, 36, left Chantel Craig and a 2-year-old daughter alone on Oct. 8 in the car in which they were living. The younger daughter later was pronounced dead, and the 2-year-old required hospitalization.
Christina Carlson initially was charged in Tulalip Tribal Court, but the charges were transferred Thursday to U.S. District Court in Seattle on Thursday. In addition to murder, Carlson also faces two counts of criminal mistreatment.
On Friday a U.S. magistrate judge ordered Carlson held in federal detention. If convicted, she could face a maximum sentence of life in prison.
An autopsy showed Carlson's daughter Chantel suffered from dehydration and severe malnutrition, weighing just 18 pounds with prominent ribs and a sunken abdomen. She was found covered in urine and feces, with maggots in her diaper and lice in her hair.
Her older sister was found in a similar condition - pale but still alive - strapped into a car seat with abrasions on her skin and bleeding wounds. Her blanket was found to be infested with maggot larva and bed bugs.
Officers responded to the scene after receiving a 911 call from another woman who lives nearby. When they arrived, they found Christina Carlson performing CPR on her younger daughter, who was lying on the ground in front of the car.
An investigation found that neither daughter's diaper had been changed for days, and that the little girls had been mostly confined to the car - much of the time in warm weather with the windows rolled up, according to court documents.
Carlson told investigators that she had run out of diapers, but officers found a full package of unused diapers in the trunk of the car.
Witnesses also told investigators that Carlson and her daughters had been living in her car, that she never fed the girls anything but 2 percent milk, and that she smoked opiates in her car while her daughters were there, court documents say.
At the time of Chantel's death, state and tribal welfare workers had been trying to find Carlson for months after receiving reports that she had been severely mistreating and neglecting her daughters.
Very difficult to understand how there wasn't intervention on behalf of these babies before this.
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Steralize this women if she gets out. This is terrible! I hate to say it, but I think people should get a license to breed and be drug tested if on welfare. I'm tired of hearing stories like this.
Charges need to be brought up on every single person who knew those girls were there, who saw the mother smoking drugs with them in the car, who knew that she only gave them milk and who knew that CPS was looking for her and did nothing to help those babies. Every single person who knew of their condition needs to be charged- they are just as guilty for killing that little girl. Shame on all of them!!1
 @Heinrich Wouldn't it be accessory to murder? In that they knew about it and "protected" her from police, until of course they saw her trying to do CPR on her deceased child. THEN they figured they'd better call 9-1-1 and become the "Good Samaritan"
This story just breaks my heart, to think what those kids have gone through.
Something to think about though- for all the stories you read here about serious drugs, all the statistics about addiction- almost all of those people have children. We have a large number of children in our communities that are growing up not much better than these poor two little girls. Addicts cannot care for children yet they have them- over and over. It is a tragedy and one we are going to be paying for as these babies grow up into troubled adults.
If only the Federal laws had been applied to the ability to remove the children from this woman BEFORE the fact; they'd already done so with three other children. Makes this very hard to understand how something like this could happen. Very hard. I'm quite sure the Tribal Social Services knew all about her, and her situation, and knew exactly where she was. I don't know how they sleep at night and live with themselves.
 @ladylib1 sure they knew. She's the niece of the Chief of the Tribal Police. They all knew where she was- even in the article it says that the neighbors knew what she was doing and where she was. Its small here on the Rez. They knew where she was and they were hiding her out. They all need to be charged with criminal neglect at the very least.
Women like this need to be forcibly sterilized.
I have zero sympathy for this woman and I'll tell you why. Her children suffered greatly. Think about what these girls went through - they were alone, freezing, hot, hungry, thirsty, wet, in pain, sick, scared, and likely had maggots in open wounds. They needed someone to hold them, take care of them, make them feel better, but they didn't get it. Even though the surviving little girl is only 2, she will remember. It might be vivid, it may only be tiny bits and pieces or only in her nightmares but she will remember.
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Hopefully she'll be placed with family that is loving and gives her all that she needs. For the adult in this case, I hope she gets the maximum and they offer her free sterilization. Everyone says forced sterilization, but I think first the state should offer free sterilization in all cases like this.
She needs the same treatment as those little girls got. Lock her sorry butt up in a car, do not feed her and put a diaper on her then tie her hands, so she can not remove the diaper for days once it is soiled. See how she likes it.
People like this do not deserve to have children, when other people who deserve to have children can't. Just makes me sick.
So she has a total of 5 kids? 3 taken from her and 2 that was with her. When the first 3 got taken away, her female organs should have been ripped out. It's awful what drugs did to her. But that was her choise. =(
No parole in federal prison system. This monster will go where she belongs
Wow! I'm surprised we can't give a maximum life sentence for more heinus crimes!
Many people knew those children were being abused and NOT ONE did a darn thing.Just a phone call could of saved her. There should be more people up on charges not just the mother!
There is no legal duty to do so. Lots of people don't want to interfere. That's not what I would do; I'm just saying there would be nothing to charge anyone with who didn't call or do anything, because legally they have no requirement to do so.
 @ladylib1 Anyone who knows of child abuse and does not report it to the Police is committing a felony. So everyone is LEGALLY REQUIRED to report child abuse.
"Witnesses also told investigators that Carlson and her daughters had been living in her car, that she never fed the girls anything but 2 percent milk, and that she smoked opiates in her car while her daughters were there" WHY AREN'T THESE WITNESSES BEING CHARGED WITH MURDER!! Are you kidding me they saw what was going on and did nothing??
There is no legal requirement for ordinary citizens to intervene. Now, if Social Services knew about it and did nothing to remove them (which apparently they did, and didn't act to remove the two younger children), then they should be held accountable for that. But remember--this is tribal land, tribal law. Different laws and rules apply.
 @ladylib1 maybe legally they did not have to do anything but morally- what is wrong with those people??
I am really glad to see that the charges were transferred, and she is now being charge with murder. If my memory is correct, that was something the tribe was not charging her on. She only got 2 counts of child endangerment.Â
I would really like to see her in prison for the max sentence. I don't want to see any symphony for her because she was on drugs and did not know what she was doing, and no one would help. Everyone knows that drugs are bad and you do things you should not. On that first day she used, she made the choice to have a future like this.Â
@Just my say   I think the tribes sentence would only be one year in jail.
 @agatha  @Just one year is right--they probably don't want to give away space someone else can pay for in their "tribal" jails for rent.
 @agatha Well here in this state that seems like that would have fit the crime. ;)
Absolutely horrifying. Â That is just beyond sad what those poor babies went through, I can only hope the surviving child gets to live out the rest of her life with a loving family.
Not sure what will happen, since it's a Native child and under tribal law.
This is a tragic horrendous senseless death and treatment of children. It is very clear that this mother had serious mental health problems that based upon the article "Witnesses also told investigators that Carlson and her daughters had been living in her car, that she never fed the girls anything but 2 percent milk, and that she smoked opiates in her car while her daughters were there, court documents say" could have clearly been prevented. Most comments here though seem to think that this person was sane in her treatment because of the name calling and the calls to lock her up or execute her. One thing is very clear is that most people commenting are blaming the mother.
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What I don't understand is that when another person kills kids with a gun why is there a large number of people that cannot focus on the person like in this article but have to focus on the gun? Mental health clearly is to blame in this mothers actions that led to the death of her child and to inhuman treatment of both children and mental health is clearly to blame for the mass killing in Newtown. But why can the anti gun crowd not acknowledge this as they only focus on the gun? More children die a year from inhuman treatment in America that is not related to guns then childen who die by a gun.
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This is a tragic event that at least one child lived through and I hope that this child will be able to deal with this the rest of their life. But why is there not at least 1/20th of the people posting on this article about this tragic death as compared to the Netown deaths? Is this child's death less important then the Newtown deaths? I think not. Does the anti gun crowd only care about gun deaths and they can't be riled up about other deaths? Mental health is to blame for both events. Why does the anti gun crowd ignore this in their push to solve senseless deaths or is it more of what I suspect that the anti gun crowd just wants to live in a gun free world no matter if senseless death is still part of that world from other means.
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I know many of you will post for me to give up the fight that this is not the forum to bring up the anti gun debate but I argue this is exactly the forum to bring this up unless the anti gun crowd is admitting that they don't care about senseless deaths not caused by guns. The anti gun crowd is stalling any progress America can make on solving the real problem in America with mental health as they force the country's focus to the gun instead of the real killer.
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At the time of posting this comment there are only 16 comments in this thread for about 100 minutes into the story once posted. The same time period after the Newtown killing article posted on Komo there were about 200 comments in 100 minutes. It  is amazing how the anti gun crowd just can't get worked up about non gun related deaths.Â
 @Beam_Me_Up Thank you very much for your elaborate and eloquently stated post, Beam.
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While I am very much anti-gun, I do agree with you that this country largely neglects the mentally ill and basically medicates them to "normal" at great expense (both monetarily and otherwise) to the society at large.
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Nonetheless, that still does not make a case to leave assault weapons available to nearly anyone who wants one. We still need to curtail the easy availability of guns in our country. And we also need to recognize that the mental health problem will not fix itself and that popping pills is not the answer.
@Beam_Me_Up  This mother chose to do drugs negect children. All she had to do was let someone know where her daughters were. There are a ton of people on Tulalip who would of taken care of the girls.
There is no excuseÂ
There is a difference between an "excuse" and a "reason." You don't have a clue what it's like to be mentally ill AND addicted, so you have no place to judge. Nobody is saying just let her go. But we ARE saying, look at the whole situation and think with your mind and some compassion and education. People who are addicts AREN'T ABLE TO THINK LIKE YOU AND ME.
 @ladylib1 Which is why they can't stop doing what they are doing. So beyond the compassion, what do we do to protect others from them? Because we can't change them. No one changes until they want to change and very few addicts get to that place.
 @agatha Using opiates can change the chemical construct and the way that your brain works, which hasten the onset of mental illness such as schizophrenia and depression. Mental illness is not an excuse. It was most likely caused by her substance abuse. Also, a lot of homeless people have mental disorders. They can't keep a job because they have anxiety or Bipolar disorder or manic depression. Mental disorder is not an excuse for abusing her children, it just really set this situation up for almost the worst ending for this person who had children. I don't call her a mother because that term is above her. Anyone can have kids, but it takes a loving mother to raise them right.Â
 @Nick Finney  @agatha There is NOT one study in publication that proves that drugs hasten or create Mental Health issues in any human.
 @Beam_Me_Up You are free to voice your opinion on the gun issue; however, I do not see how this is a mental health issue. It clearly states that the women was on drugs. That is a lifestyle choice she made instead of being healthy for her children. Even if she had to live in her car, there's no reason for there to have been maggots on those babies. Things like this make my blood curdle and my heart breaks as I look at my 22 month old little girl. I can't imagine how this women could choose drugs instead of making those babies happy. I definitely do not agree that this was a mental health issue.
 @Rikki  @Beam_Me_Up Drugs are a choice, not a disease.
 @Rikki  @Beam_Me_Up It's called addiction, and it is covered under mental health. Addiction does cause a normally sane person to make horrible life choices, ask any recovering addict, they will tell you. Dont misunderstand me, I am not excusing the behavior, I think this is beyond cruel and inhumane treatment and she should be locked away for as long and as they can get. But the question is mental health, you cannot legally purchase a gun if you use illegal drugs (of course you can lie on the application) But the point is, addiction is treated as a mental illness. As a matter of fact, many addicts have underlying mental illness that they were trying to self medicate for.Â
 @Rikki  @Beam_Me_Up Who in their right mind would let their children have maggots in their diapers? She said she ran out of diapers, yet there were more in the trunk. Did she forget that? I don't think she had any other use for diapers, or that she was lazy. Mothers are naturally inclined to take care of their offspring, so how could she be in her right state of mind and watch her children die? A lot of drugs lead to mental illness or can atleast be a factor. Just cause she was using doesn't mean she was sane.
 @Rikki  @Beam_Me_Up Perhaps it's because of your kind of attitude and your kind of assumptions that we do not have decent mental health care available for those who should have it. She's bonkers, but that doesn't mean she should just be let go.
 @uscit16791949  @Rikki  @Beam_Me_Up Ronald Reagan dissolved Mental Health treatment across the Nation the first year of his election. His is to blame for the Mental Health issues in the U.S. today.
Nobody is suggesting she just be let go. What is being said is that people who have mental illness do not have the capacity to behave as a normal person would. They make bad choices. And sometimes those choices have tragic results for more than just themselves. But it STARTS with mental illness. What needs to happen is for her to get the treatment she needs and do her time. What's tragic is that nobody did anything to see that she got the treatment she needed BEFORE the events, particularly when her other three children had already been removed. It's a complex issue because of the other laws that WE have constructed around it, such as privacy, committment, etc. There are no easy answers. But it's people who JUDGE and dismiss the mentally ill who are part of the problem.
 @Rikki The reason you can't imagine how this woman could choose drugs instead of making those babies happy is because you are sane. You are normal, normal people are not meant to imagine or understand things like this. A normal sane person would never choose what this woman did. Drugs took over her mind but before that she made the decision to value drugs. Any mental health professional would deem this woman in need of mental health treatment. And this is the root of our problems in America, the mental health professionals have not been tasked or even asked with providing a solution. Who did Obama ask? The NRA! Who did Biden ask? The entertainment business! I don't think there are any mental health professionals on the NRA or entertainment business payrolls.
You clearly do NOT have any understanding of mental illness. You think that it's an "excuse" because you don't have a clue. Please educate yourself before shooting your mouth off about things you know nothing of.
@uscit16791949 It's this type of argument - "oh, she's mentally ill, it's not her fault" - that is leading to the downfall of society. Believe me, I know mental illness is a huge problem, since I retired from law enforcement and dealt with mentally ill people on a daily basis. But in this state unfortunately mental illness is used an excuse to commit heinous crimes and get away with it. Violent people live on the streets because this state's stance on mental illness is firmly in the "it's not against the law to be crazy so we can't force people to get help" camp. Some people need to be forced to get help, period. Some people, through no fault of their own, are dangerous to the point where we as a society should step up and say they shouldn't be allowed to live outside of a very controlled setting. Until that happens, crazy will do what crazy can.
 @tkyed So, you know sane people who would do this kind of thing? Maggots, etc.?
Yes sane people sometimes could care less about anyone but themselves and that includes their kids same thing with drug addicts. That is a fact so to sit here and assume that she was mentally ill is BS.
 @agatha I am clearly not making excuses for this woman unless you think that me calling her insane is an excuse? Do you think that a sane person would do what she did? Do you think the Newtown killing was spurred by sane thoughts? Mental health has been ignored in the country for a very long time and then given to the pharmaceutical companies to solve while they make billions of dollars on the new drug of the month campaign trying to address mental health issues. No conflict of interest there.Â
@Beam_Me_Up  QUIT MAKING EXCUSES FOR THIS WOMAN. For Gods sake, the baby had maggots in her diaper.
One of the reasons I didn't become an attorney(many other reasons too)...No way I could remain impartial if I was on either side of this. I hope the young survivor finds a good life soon.
I strongly dislike children but still cannot even imagine treating them in this horrendous fashion! Those poor girls. Hopefully the older one is with someone who loves her & takes proper care of her.
I would have loved those babies. :(
@Melissa Chambers That is what I don't understand about people who neglect their children or hit their children... there are so many people out there who would be more than willing to adopt. I absolutely love children myself but I totally understand that some people just can't deal with them and are frustrated by them but then why not give them up for adoption? Especially in this day and age when you can choose the adoptive parents yourself if you want to and (if you really do love your children but just aren't able to deal with them emotionally or financially) can probably even find someone who would be willing to let you stay in touch and know how they are doing. It seems like no matter how messed up you are there should be moments of clarity when you could get some help and find your children some parents that can give them the love, care and security they need.