Mother Charged with Son's Poisoning, Murder: Police

A Gaithersburg mother reportedly poisoned her son with an allergy medicine before a fiery car crash that was aimed at throwing police off the track of her crime, authorities allege.

At a press conference Friday, Montgomery County Police announced they have charged Narges Shafeirad, 33, with first-degree murder and first-degree arson in the death of her 5-year-old son.

Shafeirad’s vehicle was reported on fire June 16 off the road near the westbound lanes of Sam Eig Highway (Route 370) and Fields Road.

SEE ALSO: Child Dies in Car Crash, Fire: Police

Montgomery County Fire and Rescue personnel saw Shafeirad with the vehicle; she told first responders her son was inside the vehicle. Rescuers attempted to force open the vehicle, breaking glass, and then extinguishing the fire, but were unable to remove the boy.

Shafeirad remains in a hospital undergoing treatment for second- and third-degree burns over 40 percent of her body, and is in police custody there.

Capt. Darren Francke, commander of the Montgomery County police department’s major crimes unit, said Friday the child was killed by an overdose of Diphenhydramine, an antihistamine used in allergy medicine, including Benadryl. Shafeirad reportedly told police she forced the boy to drink an entire bottle of the medicine.

The boy’s mother gave him “an extraordinary amount, an excessive amount” of the medicine, then set the fire to obscure the crime, Francke said.

The boy was dead when he was placed in the car, Francke said, and didn’t suffer from the fire.

Francke said the motive for the boy’s death is unclear, but a final divorce hearing was scheduled for that day with Shafeirad and her husband, Hamid Dana.

There were no threats made by Shafeirad before the fire, Francke said, and no signs that she contacted others for help.

Fire investigators quickly determined that the blaze didn’t start underneath the car, but instead began in the passenger compartment.