CONCORD, N.H. – A Texas woman accused of killing her 6-year-old son in New Hampshire and disposing of his body in rural Maine will plead guilty to killing him, according to a court official.
Julianne McCrery, 42, plans to plead guilty to second-degree murder in the death of her son, Camden Hughes.
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McCrery pleaded not guilty in May and has since waived all other court appearances. Her lawyers did not immediately return messages left by The Associated Press.
A Rockingham Superior Court clerk confirmed that McCrery has filed a notice of intent to plead guilty and will be sentenced to 45 years to life in prison. No date has been set for her to formally enter her plea.
The discovery of Camden’s body May 14 under a blanket on a dirt road in South Berwick led to a nationwide effort to identify him. Even as that effort went on, McCrery called his elementary school in Irving, Texas, daily to report him absent.
Camden died of asphyxiation, according to a medical examiner. He and his mother stayed in a motel in New Hampshire the weekend his body was discovered.
Texas public records show that McCrery was arrested at least twice on prostitution charges and once on a charge of possession with intent to distribute drugs.
In 2009, she was sentenced to one year in prison for a misdemeanor conviction of prostitution. In 2004, she was sentenced to three years of probation for a felony conviction of possession of a controlled substance.
Law enforcement authorities and friends have portrayed McCrery as a loving but troubled mother whose mood swings often prompted her to take long road trips.
New Hampshire prosecutors say it was during one of those trips that McCrery killed her son at a motel in Hampton, N.H. His body was found just over the border in Maine.
McCrery was arrested at a rest stop in Chelmsford, Mass., on May 17 after being spotted by a trucker.
A lawyer who represented her at a brief court appearance in Massachusetts has said he got the impression from McCrery that her intent was to take her son’s life and then kill herself.
“I believe she was there to bring both herself and her son to heaven,” George Murphy said in May. “She told me, ‘I love my son very much. I know where he is. He’s in heaven, and I want to go there as soon as possible.’ “
McCrery’s mother, LuRae McCrery of Curtis, Neb., said she did not know that her daughter was going to enter a guilty plea. She said they last spoke about a week ago and her daughter has sounded “real depressed” in their last few phone conversations.
“I definitely think she needs some help,” her mother said.
She said she’s certain that her daughter planned to kill herself as well.
“She regrets that Camden’s gone. I think she regrets not completing the act,” LuRae McCrery said. “I’ve lost them both, as far as I’m concerned.”
Shirley Miller, a close family friend, said Wednesday that she is still grappling with the death of the boy who called her “Grandma Shirley.”
“We go to the store and see something we want to buy Camden,” Miller said. “It’s a sad time.”
She said Julianne McCrery was a good mother, and that only enhanced the shock she felt at the news of the boy’s killing.
“I still haven’t brought myself to writing her yet,” Miller said of McCrery. “I liked her so well in one sense, but I hate her actions.”
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