Lakewood Church shooting: Munchausen Syndrome claims emerged before shooter took son to Lakewood, opened fire
HOUSTON - So many are left horrified and heartbroken at what occurred at Lakewood Church on Sunday. Not only the shooting, but also how a parent would take their child with them to carry out a mass shooting. That 7-year-old is still clinging to life.
The little boy was rushed to Texas Children's Hospital after he was shot in the head on Sunday when investigators say his own mother took him to Lakewood Church with her, pulled out an AR-15, and she opened fire.
Genesse Moreno has a host of mugshots from a long criminal record, but she was never charged with the crime of medical child abuse. However, in court documents, her former mother-in-law makes it clear there were accusations against Moreno that she suffered from Munchausen Syndrome by proxy, and was making her own son sick.
"It is a psychiatric disorder in which the individual is fully cognizant of what they're doing, but very deliberately induces illness," says Harvard Medical School Associate Professor Cathy Ayoub.
"These perpetrators operate with a great deal of deception and manipulation. They're a very dangerous criminal and will torture their own child," adds Licensed Clinical Social Worker Donna Boswell.
The court documents in Moreno's divorce state, "Nurses found adult pills in (her son's) endotracheal tube while he was in the hospital. Then more adult pills were found in his feeding tube."
The court records also say the 7-year-old wasn't potty-trained, was still using a feeding tube, was non-verbal, and that the child has, "suffered by his mother ignoring medical advice, not taking him to therapy for eating, speech, and not giving him any social interaction."
In fact, the documents say medical professionals feared Moreno, "Intentionally caused her pre-term labor", causing her son to be born prematurely. A child, according to the documents, Moreno saw as "an object", which these professionals say is often a symptom of Munchausen.
"They really don't have any legitimate bonds with their child. The child is seen as an object," Ayoub explains.
"There's just not the normal mother-child bond. I had a 3-year-old saying, 'I don't need my mommy anymore', the day after separation. That is not normal behavior from a 3-year-old," explains Tarrant County Sheriff's Office Detective Michael Weber, who has helped a number of children who were victims of medical child abuse.
In fact, Det. Weber has worked 16 cases of criminal medical child abuse.
These experts encourage you to report suspected Munchausen to Child Protective Services or law enforcement. They say some signs of medical child abuse include a child who gets sick and never seems to get better, and a parent who shops for different doctors instead of sticking to one pediatrician.