Mother Charged With Poisoning and Killing Her Baby, Who Had Down Syndrome
A Louisiana woman was booked Wednesday on charges she killed her 17-month-old toddler by injecting her baby, Lucas Ruiz, with a hand santizer. The official cause of death was "acute ethanol intoxication," the Plaquemines Parish Sheriff's Office told the New Orleans Times-Picayune newspaper.
Lucas, who died January 24, was born with Down syndrome and a heart defect, according to reporter Paul Purpura. On Tuesday the mother, Erika Wigstrom, confessed to using Germ-X, whose active ingredient is ethyl alcohol, but described the baby's death as a "mercy killing." Ref. Source 8