Elise C. Nelson, a resident of Paynesville, Minnesota, has been incarcerated after allegedly killing her disabled daughter, Kylie Larson, and waiting hours while her daughter lay dying before calling for the authorities. She is to face a hearing on the 8th of October.
The suspect is charged with second-degree intentional murder and second-degree manslaughter after intentionally denying care for her disabled daughter and silencing the alarm mechanism of the oximeter, as ruled by the Midwestern Medical Examiner’s Office.
Suspect switched off daughter’s vital oxygen alarm
Court documents obtained by The Sun stated that Kylie had medical problems such as chronic respiratory failure and severe developmental delay (acquired from oxygen loss during childbirth). She also required constant care and was unable to walk on her own or take care of herself.
Due to this condition, she was forced to wear a pulse oximeter, which is a finger clip device that monitored one’s oxygen levels and pulse rate — if one of these figures dropped too low, a warning alarm would sound off.
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Photo by slgckgc on Foter.com / CC BY
The crime is thought to have occurred on the 20th of June when Nelson’s husband was on a fishing trip and their other children were away from home. Throughout the weekend, Nelson continued to silence the alarm, eventually turning it off altogether.
Kylie’s last pulse was detected at 6:43 A.M., on the 22nd of June. Her mother waited for 6 hours before calling 911, and by the time first responders arrived, they found Kylie lying on the living room floor, unmoving and with significant amounts of blood pooling up on the back of her legs.
Medtronic, the company which produced the oximeter, told Stearns Country Sheriff’s Office that the device was perfectly fine, meaning the “malfunction” reported by Nelson was intentional, Crime Online reported.
Kylie remembered by bereaved loved ones
In 2008, Nelson and her husband had a similar conflict regarding the medical industry, when they sued Affiliated Community Medical Centres and Rice Memorial Hospital for medical malpractice on behalf of their daughter. This was in connection to Kylie’s disabilities caused by the hospital’s incompetency.
They were awarded $23.2 million by a jury, but this was rendered void by the defendants appealing to Judge Donald Spilseth (formerly of the Kandiyohi District) in opposition to that amount.
Photo: The Sun
Both sides went into mediation and a settlement was reached, but the defendants’ attorney, David Alsop, stated on Thursday that he could not properly disclose the settlements’ terms, and so it remains sealed 8 years later.
In her online obituary, Kylie is described by her family as “our gift from God. … Her smile was so beautiful it radiated love and joy to all. Kylie enjoyed being outside and moving around, whether it be spinning around in her chair, going for walks with friends and family, or traveling to new places.
Being a student of Paynesville Middle School, she was reportedly in good terms with her classmates, despite her condition. “…her fellow schoolmates looked forward to pushing her around the halls and laughing with her,” the obituary reads.
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