Lorrie and Thomas Boettger Murder Sixth-Month-Old Son with OTC Meds
While visiting relatives in San Diego, Lorrie Jean Boettger, 38, and Thomas Michael Boettger Sr., 39, woke up and found their baby dying. Six-month-old Thomas Boettger Jr. limbs had turned blue and stopped breathing.
Medical experts found the boy had suffered acute intoxication from an antihistamine and a sleeping aid that his parents had given him because he was “fussy.” They had crushed up Benadryl and Unisom tablets and given them to the baby.
The Boettgers have been extradited from Washington state to San Diego and will stand trial for child abuse and murder. If convicted, they could get 15 years to life in prison.
Now you must be thinking, “Boy these parents are just stupid. They didn’t mean to hurt their child.” I’m not so sure since both had medical backgrounds. Thomas worked as an EMT and Lorrie was a midwife.
Lorrie told police that her husband had given the baby meds regularly to get him to go to sleep. Sounds like he couldn’t be bothered with a fussy baby.
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March 6th, 2010 at 3:19 pm
The first thing you could do is offer some proof that you’re who you say you are and not just some sick troll trying to entertain herself.
March 6th, 2010 at 4:55 pm
That’s her.
Hey Lorrie, why don’t you just tell us what “really happened”?
March 7th, 2010 at 1:00 am
Lorrie – I like you. You have balls to come here and go up against a bunch of ruthles bitches like us… and we are fucking ruthless. Please, post your “truth” and allow us to form our opinions. As we will respect you posting your “facts”, you will have to respect our right to feel however we feel lregarding this matter. You have to know that it is in love for a child that is no longer here that we all feel the way we do. And we DO love these children. All of them. You have to know that you are going into this – jumping in with both feet – willing to take whatever shit we dish out. But you have my attention. Please – the floor is yours. I’d love to hear what you have to say.
March 7th, 2010 at 2:05 am
I sort of agree with you, except she hasn’t said one word about what “really happened”. I, for one, would have at least a little bit of respect (not much though, sorry, just being honest) for her if she would tell us what her version of what happened instead of just comming here telling us how we’re just ignorant.
March 8th, 2010 at 12:22 am
Meh. She can or not. We already know the story.
March 20th, 2010 at 10:53 am
I will address a few specific points that I have seen here and in a few other places that are simply errors…not necessarily malicious, but incorrect nonetheless.
We did not wake up and find our baby dying, as the first post in this forum states. Little T passed away hours before I found him. We DID do CPR while waiting for the medics to arrive, as we called them immediately…however, our son could not be revived.
Little T was never given adult doses of adult medications, and he was never intentionally given anything that would hurt him. I have heard a few people balk at giving him Zantac for his reflux, but it is actually a very common practice. Doctors have been giving it to infants with acid reflux for a number of years, of course in a smaller dosage than an adult would take.
Antihistamines have now been declared to be absolutely unsafe for not only infants but also young children…this FDA statement was released over a year after our son passed away.
In the court record, the medical examiner stated flatly that No, he could not say with any degree of certainty that medication even caused Little T’s death. He stated that he was making that assumption simply because there was no other cause of death found. Unfortunately, specific red flags that would point to SIDS were ignored and never investigated…and he had several. When we asked that these tests be performed, we were told that it was impossible because the ME’s office had “misplaced” necessary tissue. Medical experts examined the toxicology reports and stated that the levels found would not be considered dangerous, let alone lethal, and that it was unwise to assume they caused Little T’s demise.
We lived for five months under the assumption that SIDS was the cause of death because that is what we were told. That is why we built Little T’s tribute website and listed him on the SIDS memorial website. That is the only information we had, and we believed it.
Specifically to April, your attitude reflects a very sad state of affairs. You know what the media has said/printed about our story, nothing else. I don’t think I have ever spoken to you, nor has Thomas. So your knowledge of our case is one-sided at best. It’s always a good idea to hear all the facts before you decide what to believe…but if you prefer to form a biased opinion based on limited and slanted information, you certainly may. Thank you for allowing me to share, but please don’t give me credit for coming fearlessly into this forum to “face” all of you. I’ve been to some pretty scary places and lived in pretty scary surroundings…this forum is a birthday party with ice cream by comparison, you are really not intimidating in the slightest. This is an email forum, for heaven’s sake.
I’m really not sure what else anyone wants to know, but I will close this for now and let anyone who wants to ask questions.
Specifically to “IHaveKidsToo”: I’m not sure what in the world you want me to do in order to prove who I am. Seems a bit much, I’m really not sure what you would even want.
Regards,
Lorrie
March 20th, 2010 at 11:56 am
Don’t address me specifically. You have no reason to.
Did you or did you not do time for MURDER??
It seems pretty cut and dry to me.
March 20th, 2010 at 2:29 pm
Sorry April, I addressed you specifically because I was responding to something you had specifically written directly to me a few posts back. I meant no offense, just wanted to try to be as clear as possible with my response.
Actually, I did NOT do time for murder, I did time for involuntary manslaughter. The two are quite different from each other, even having totally different charge codes. If you look up those charge codes you see quite a vast difference between the levels of murder and the levels of manslaughter. Not only in the intent and culpability of each separate charge, but also in the sentencing guidelines. The minimum recommended sentence for a murder charge is fifteen years…I served sixteen months.
Yes, I pled guilty to the IM charge in order to secure my almost immediate release. I had been sitting in county jail going through the motions of a slow moving justice system for fifteen months when the DA offered me the plea agreement. If I pled guilty to IM, they got their win and I got to go home. Now, I have heard many people (not just here but in other venues as well) say “No matter what, if I wasn’t guilty I would never plead guilty, I’d fight it to the death”. All I can say is perhaps there are people out there who are stronger or more willing to give up large portions of their life in order to try to prove their point. For me, sixteen months was long enough and I wanted to get out and get back to my family. Not to mention, at the time we were fighting our case San Diego County boasted a 94% conviction rate. Now, are you kidding?? There is no way on earth that forty-seven out of every fifty people charged with a crime of some sort are actually guilty…but they get convicted. Those are the published stats. With twenty-five years in prison on the line, I was more willing to sign a plea and get out of jail than risk losing at trial and go to prison until my sixty-fourth birthday. I told my attorney with a little humor that I would confess to shooting President Kennedy if it would get me out of jail, and I wasn’t even born when he was assassinated. There comes a point where the goal is securing your freedom…even if it means signing a guilty plea.
Yes, it is cut and dry. We wanted out of jail and we signed a plea agreement in order to make that happen. Most people we know have said they would have done the same thing, and people who were standing with us through the whole ordeal were relieved to see us go ahead and sign so we could get out of custody and move forward.
Peace,
Lorrie