Mom Pleads Guilty In Camden Hughes Death
CONCORD, N.H. (CBS) — A Texas woman has pleaded guilty to killing her 6-year-old son in New Hampshire and disposing of his body in rural Maine.
Forty-two-year-old Julianne McCrery was charged with second-degree murder in the death of her son, Camden Hughes.
She pleaded guilty Friday.
Manley Gove has rarely spoken about the day his family discovered the body of six year old Camden Hughes in a secluded area near their South Berwick, Maine home.
WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Kim Tunnicliffe reports
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"It looked like someone that loved him put him there. He was covered up with some care," he tells WBZ-TV.
It would be days before he knew it was the boy's own mother, Julianne McCrery, who has plead guilty to smothering her son in a Hampton, New Hampshire motel room after driving from Texas to kill him. The gruesome details were laid out in court by New Hampshire Assistant Attorney General Susan Morrell.
"She stated that her son struggled, flailing his arms and kicking his legs for three to four minutes until becoming lifeless," Morell told the court.
Manley Gove will never know why McCrery chose the end of his driveway to bury the body, but wishes she had found help instead.
"We'd rather Julie had just left him with us alive. That wasn't the choice, but we didn't want to see him not wanted," he said.
His wife, Linda, a missionary now in Africa works with many unwanted children giving the Goves a unique perspective.
"It gives you an even deeper feeling to help people in desperate situations," he said. Gove says he won't judge a plea deal under which McCrery will serve 45 years to life in prison.
"I don't think something like that ever comes to closure. The healing can start," he said.
