MAGGIE WEBBER - 4 yo -(2010) Bloomingdale (W of Chicago) IL

Hospitalized mother called suspect in daughter's slaying

4-year-old girl stabbed to death in Bloomingdale
November 4 2010


The hospitalized mother of a 4-year-old girl found fatally stabbed in Bloomingdale is the sole suspect in the slaying, authorities said Thursday."We are not looking for any other offender," Bloomingdale police Chief Frank Giammarese said. "She's the only suspect in this case. We are still following up on all leads, which there are many. We're just trying to conduct the most thorough investigation. We're confident charges will be brought against the appropriate person."A lengthy autopsy conducted Thursday on Magdalene M. Webber concluded the child died from a single laceration to her neck that law enforcement officials said was so deep it nearly severed the girl's head. The girl, known as Maggie, who turned 4 on Oct. 5, was found dead about 1:30 p.m. Wednesday in her grandmother's town home in the 200 block of Amherst Court on the village's southeast side.
Her 43-year-old mother was listed in good condition at Adventist GlenOaks Hospital in Glendale Heights with a self-inflicted slash wound to her wrist, authorities said. She remains under guard while police investigate what they described as a murder and attempted suicide.The mother and child lived in upstate New York, but Giammarese said they had been staying at the town home for "several weeks" while visiting.He said a teenage daughter who lives elsewhere in the Chicago area called 911 after she went to the town home to check on the mother, who was alone with Maggie while the grandmother was out of the state.A neighbor said the grandmother was in California on Wednesday. Giammarese said she has returned to Illinois.The teenager declined to comment Thursday. Her fiance's father, Ed Ritacco, said the teenager found her younger sister slain in a dry bathtub in an upstairs bathroom. The girls' mother was conscious, he said."She said the first words her mother said was, 'Ssshh. Be very quiet. Your sister's sleeping,'" Ritacco said. "She said her sister was in the bathtub and there was blood everywhere.""It's beyond comprehension," he continued. "How can you look in the eyes of an innocent child and do something like this?"DuPage State's Attorney Joseph Birkett said the facts of the case "raise a red flag of a mental health defense," so authorities are conducting several interviews of relatives and others in recent contact with the mother to get the most accurate picture of her behavior at the time of the crime."This is a horrible case," Giammarese added. "For any 4-year-old to die under these circumstances is tragic. Our hearts go out to the family.

"http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-bloomingdale-murder-1105-20101104,0,6246540.story

Bond was set Sunday at $5 million dollars for the woman accused of killing her 4-year-old daughter in Bloomingdale .

Prosecutors say Marci Webber told investigators she stabbed her daughter to keep her from becoming an "internet sex slave."

The injury was so deep, Magdalene was almost decapitated.

She was found in a bathtub in her grandmother's home Wednesday.

"Divine mercy" was also written in blood on a wall.

Prosecutors will reportedly ask for a mental evaluation.

Webber, 43, of upstate New York, faces first-degree murder charges.

Judge delays mental evaluation for mom accused of killing girl, 4
Defense says suicide watch has prevented private conversation with Marci Webber
November 15, 2010|By Art Barnum, Tribune reporterA mental health exam for Marci Webber, accused of slashing her 4-year-old daughter to death earlier this month in Bloomingdale, has been delayed at least a week due to concerns by her attorneys.

DuPage County prosecutors got permission last week from Judge George Bakalis to conduct a psychiatric evaluation on Webber, 43, to determine if she was mentally competent when she allegedly killed Magdalene "Maggie" Webber in Webber's mother's town house.

But DuPage Public Defender Jeff York said he has not been able to have a private conversation with Webber in the county jail because she is on a 24-hour suicide watch, which has required a sheriff's deputy to be in close proximity at all times. He also said the defense hasn't been given any evidence or information about the case, which hinders its ability to discuss the case with Webber and offer legal advice.

Bakalis agreed to delay the exam, which was to have occurred Monday. He has warned Webber that if she eventually offers the defense that she was legally insane at the time of the incident, the state has the right to introduce any statements she makes in the exam interview at trial.

Webber, in court Monday, still was wearing a bandage on her neck and her left wrist where she suffered self-inflicted wounds at the same time her daughter died.

Meanwhile, more than a dozen relatives and friends said goodbye to Maggie during a small private funeral in Roselle.

They remembered Maggie as a sweet, cheerful child with a bright smile and giggle.

"I just want to say Maggie was my best friend and she always will be," said Mallory Webber, the slain child's 18-year-old sister. "There was a time when I looked after her, and now I know she is looking after me."

A tiny white closed casket stood at the center of the chapel. Photos of the child with her two older sisters filled a poster board erected in the corner of the dimmed room.

The Rev. Herman Kinzler of St. Matthew's Parish in Glendale Heights offered words meant to bring peace and comfort to the tearful group. The child's grandmother described Maggie as "the sweetest child" and tearfully asked mourners to remember Marci Webber in their prayers.

In court Monday, Assistant State's Attorney Alex McGimpsey said the state would provide York the information it currently has about the case within the next few days. A sheriff's spokesman said arrangements would be made to allow a private conversation between Webber and her attorneys, while still safeguarding the defendant's safety.

"From our perspective, time is of the essence," McGimpsey said. "The best circumstance is to have the mental health exam immediately, nearest the time of the incident."

Bakalis said he wanted a status of the case next Monday.

Webber is charged with first-degree murder and is in the jail on a $5 million bond.

Prosecutors have previously stated that Webber claims she murdered her daughter to keep her from being sold as a sex slave over the Internet. Police responding to the scene found the words "divine mercy" written in blood on the adjacent wall.

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2010-11-15/news/ct-met-webber-murder-1116-20101115_1_mental-health-exam-delays-evaluation

Not Guilty Plea from Mom Accused of Slashing Daughter's Throat
Marci Webber faces 60 years in prison if convicted

Monday, Nov 29, 2010 | Updated 9:45 PM CDT

The New York woman accused of slashing her 4-year-old daughter's throat at a relative's home in DuPage County has pleaded not guilty to murder charges.

Marci Webber, 43, entered the plea Monday in DuPage County Circuit Court.

Webber faces five counts of first-degree murder for allegedly stabbing her daughter, Magdalene "Maggie" Webber earlier this month while they were staying at the girl's grandmother's home in the west suburban Bloomingdale.

Tthe words "Divine Mercy" were written in blood next to the little girl's body, the state's attorney said at the time.

Authorities did not indicate Monday whether Marci Webber has an attorney. Prosecutors say she could be sentenced to as long as 60 years in prison if convicted of the slaying.




Source: http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/marci-webber-wheaton-plea-111015369.html#ixzz1Kp39Yerc

For much of her life, Mallory Webber felt like she had two mothers.


There’s the mom who took her to swim
with dolphins in North Carolina, who doted on her and taught her about
the court system while cramming for law school.
And then there’s the mom who “floats in
and out of reality,” haunted by delusions of secret societies and evil
cast upon her family.

It’s been a tough life, Mallory said, but she wants the world to know Marci Webber isn’t a monster.


“She tried her hardest to do everything
within her power to make sure us kids were taken care of,” Mallory, 19,
said in a sit-down interview with the Daily Herald. “I know a
completely different mom than everybody else.”


The mother everybody else knows is the
one who savagely killed her 4-year-old daughter Maggie in a fit of
insanity two years ago in Bloomingdale. A DuPage County judge confirmed
that Thursday, ruling that Marci Webber was not guilty of murder because
she did not know right from wrong at the time.


For Mallory, who found her sister’s body, that woman isn’t her mom.


“I don’t hold any anger against her
because I really know it wasn’t her. She never would have done that,”
the Woodstock teen said.


Maggie’s murder on Nov. 3, 2010, marked
a psychological tipping point for Webber, who had battled debilitating
mental illness for much of her life.


During last week’s one-day bench trial,
psychologist Orest “Gene” Wasyliw testified Webber believed Maggie was
going to be kidnapped by Satan and sold into sexual slavery.


In an irrational act of desperation and love, he said, Webber slashed the child’s throat — essentially to save her.


“She had a break with reality,” Wasyliw
testified. “Marci tried to protect her by killing her, which makes no
sense. She didn’t know what she was doing.”


Webber, 45, grew up in Woodstock and
after high school served two years in the Army stationed in Germany
before she was honorably discharged. She went on to study art and,
eventually, law in college.


Mallory’s memories of growing up are a
mishmash of difficult times, in different states, with different men who
came in and out of her mom’s life.


She said her mother battled alcoholism
at times and went through a flurry of mental health professionals who
offered varying diagnoses, from major depression and bipolar disorder to
borderline personality disorder and psychosis.


But even with medication and therapy, her troubles persisted, and child welfare workers were often at her door.


Webber’s condition was aggravated in
the early 2000s, Mallory said, when she sued her former psychiatrist,
accusing her of unethical and unprofessional conduct. She also was in
and out of court over the years fighting for custody of her daughters.


Before the murder, Webber lived with
Maggie in New York while her middle child, Madison, remained with her
father. Mallory moved in with her grandmother to finish high school at
Glenbard East in Lombard.


Mallory said the stress of the many wars her mother was waging apparently wore her down.


“I’ve known all my life there was
something wrong with my mom; I just couldn’t figure it out,” she said.
“Closer to the time of the incident, things started to come to a head.”


Wasyliw, the psychologist, testified
Webber became “obsessed” with her lawsuit and court cases, and was
devastated when she learned the suit would not go to trial.


When police later searched her home in
East Nassau, N.Y., he said, they found Webber had scrawled notes about
the case all over her bathroom walls, “from floor to ceiling.”


Just weeks before the murder, Webber and Maggie arrived unannounced in Bloomingdale, apparently looking for a fresh start.


“But mom came back from New York a completely different person,” Mallory said.


She said her mother drifted back and
forth from being loving and caring to an unrecognizable woman who
believed people were following her in the grocery store and that her
television was changing channels on its own.


A devout Catholic for much of her life,
she also grew increasingly infatuated with religion and increasingly
paranoid about secret societies and evil, Mallory said.


“But she was not so far different that I
was concerned for anybody’s safety,” she said. “Mom had never beat us
or hit us, none of that.”


Mallory said she was planning to help her mother clean house on the day that will forever be etched into her memory.


She said she arrived at her
grandmother’s townhouse to find all the doors locked but managed to get
inside. The house was eerily quiet, and her mom didn’t respond to her
calls. Then she heard a cough.


Mallory made her way upstairs.


“I was just hit with this ungodly smell that I will never forget,” she said. “I followed it to the bathroom.”


Mallory said she entered the room to find her mother lying on the floor and blood everywhere.


Mallory screamed, “What did you do?”


“And she put her finger up to her mouth and said, ‘Shhh, the baby’s sleeping,’” Mallory recalled.


Prosecutors said Maggie’s throat had
been cut so severely she was nearly decapitated. Police found her in a
bathtub with a religious emblem around her toe. Written on the walls in
blood were the words “divine mercy,” “Satan,” and “evil.” Marci Webber
also had slashed her own neck and wrists.


Looking back, Mallory says she blames the mental health system more for her sister’s death than she does her mother.


She believes her mother was repeatedly
misdiagnosed and shuffled in different directions by doctors who didn’t
appreciate the severity of her condition, or know how to treat it.


“Part of me also is upset that maybe
she realized something was wrong, and she didn’t tell anybody. I don’t
know. I can’t hold it against her at this point,” Mallory said. “She
didn’t want to hurt her.”


Maggie was slain about a month after
her 4th birthday. Mallory, whose eyes well up with tears when talking
about Maggie, describes her sister as “the sweetest little thing in the
world.”


“She was really cute and just the
nicest kid,” she said. “She loved her mom a lot. They’d always do things
together, like go to the park. They were together every single day.”


Marci Webber calls Mallory practically
every day from the DuPage County jail, Mallory said. Soon, Marci will be
in a secured mental health facility operated by the Illinois Department
of Human Services, where she will be for the foreseeable future.


“She cries about Maggie,” Mallory said.
“She’s so heartbroken and wishes she could turn back time. She knows
what she did and is incredibly sorry.”


For Mallory, the future is no more certain than it ever has been.


She wants to return to college — a plan
interrupted by her sister’s death — and possibly write a book one day
about her experience.


She also holds out hope that someday her mother will be well enough to come home to the family she loves.


“She deserves that,” Mallory said.
http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20120611/news/706119951/

Wow, this is an incredibly sad story.

Mother Charged With Slashing Daughter's Throat Found Not Guilty "Divine mercy," "Satan" scrawled in blood on bathroom walls when young girl's body found, prosecutors say

Thursday, Jun 7, 2012 | Updated 7:09 PM CST
A mother accused of slashing her daughter's throat was found not guilty by reason of insanity Thursday in a bench trial that lasted a single day.

Prosecutors opened their case against Marci Webber, of Bloomingdale, and had rested by midday. The defense spent the afternoon making the case that Webber, 45, was insane at the time of the slaying, which occurred weeks after she had moved from New York to the Chicago area to live with family members.

It was enough for Judge George Bakalis to reach his verdict.

The body of Webber's youngest daughter, 4-year-old Magdalene "Maggie" Webber, was found by her sister in November 2010. Police found several words scrawled in the blood smearing the bathroom walls, including "divine mercy," "Satan" and "evil," prosecutor Tim Diamond said.

Marci Webber was charged with five counts of first-degree murder. She entered a not guilty plea.

Webber has struggled for years with mental illness, failed marriages, alcohol abuse, and suicide attempts, including on the night of the 4-year-old's slaying, the Albany Times Union reported.

She expressed strong religious beliefs on her Facebook and MySpace pages at the time of the killing, making statements such as, "I am a very Catholic person, who likes to visit national shrines, especially those of Franciscans," the Times Union reported.

Questioned by investigators in the hospital after her daughter’s death, Webber admitted she inflicted the nearly seven-inch long cut that killed and nearly decapitated the 30-pound child, prosecutors said.

"She said she killed her daughter to protect her from people who were after her ... who wanted to sell Maggie into the sex trade," said Diamond.

Webber told her 19-year-old daughter hours before the killing that she thought Satan was going to take Maggie from her, Diamond said.

"Satan was going to kidnap Maggie and have sex with Maggie," Diamond said, quoting what Webber allegedly said during a Nov. 2 phone call with her daughter, Mallory.

http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/trial-bloomingdale-mother-marci-magdalene-webber--157871025.html

This can be moved to adjudicated cases. I have mixed feelings about this one. I believe you should get the death penality for killing a child. If you are indeed mental case then you should NEVER be allowed to be free again. She did take a life she should forfit hers whether in jail or the death penality, mental issues or not. The little girl is dead. Sometimes the rights of the accused are given more weight than the victims.
William

I just dobn't think this is a satisfactory adjudication. She needs to be locked up for the rest of her life. Any institution, mental or prison as long as she is locked up.