Mom drugs son's feeding bag so he would ‘go to sleep forever,' Minnesota cops say

Miami Herald

4 days ago

A mother created a 'slurry' of water mixed with an excess of anxiety medication and put it in her son's feeding bag, 'hoping he would go to sleep forever,' Minnesota deputies said.
Julie Myhre-Schnell, 65, has now pleaded guilty to attempted premeditated murder of her adult son in December 2023, court documents say. If a Minnesota judge accepts her July 23 guilty plea, she faces up to 20 years in prison.
Myhre-Schnell's attorney did not immediately respond to McClatchy News' request for comment on July 31.
At the beginning of December 2023, the woman picked up her Lorazepam prescription, which had 31 pills, deputies said. On Dec. 3, she crushed up the remaining anxiety pills, mixed them with water and smuggled the container into her son's group home in Vadnais Heights, according to a probable cause statement.
Before she left for the night, she dumped the mixture into her son's feeding bag, according to deputies.
The next day, her son was taken to the hospital and suffered acute hypoxemic respiratory failure, according to the complaint. He survived but told deputies 'it's a lot to process.'
'The whole time, I knew I was gonna try to do this,' Myhre-Schnell told deputies. '... All night, I was like, am I really doing this?'
Speaking with deputies in July 2024, Myhre-Schnell said she 'completely regretted he survived,' according to the probable cause statement.
She confessed her actions to multiple family members, deputies said, but on Aug. 6, she told her son what she tried to do, the probable cause statement said.
Myhre-Schnell, in a text message to her son, said she put the medication in his feeding back so he would 'go to sleep forever,' the probable cause statement said.
'I made it, I'm still here,' the son told deputies.
Myhre-Schnell is the ex-wife of Minnesota Department of Corrections Commissioner Paul Schnell, KARE reported.
Vadnais Heights is about a 15-mile drive northeast from Minneapolis.