Croton Mom Pleads Guilty in Daughter's Easter Sunday Death

Kathleen Dymes pleaded guilty Tuesday morning to all three charges brought against her after the death of her daughter on Easter Sunday, 2015.

Lacey Carr, 6, was found by her father, Dymes’ ex-husband. She and her mother were in a Croton-on-Hudson bedroom, unresponsive.

Both were taken to Phelps Memorial Hospital Center. Lacey died.

She was a first-grader at Carrie E. Tompkins Elementary School in Croton.

Police executed a search warrant at the home, which belonged to Dymes’ father. They found over-the-counter, prescription and illegal drugs, alcohol and two handwritten notes in the bedroom. The Westchester County District Attorney announced an indictment against Dymes six months later.

“As alleged in the indictment, this defendant failed in her most basic role as a mother and caregiver: to ensure the safety and well-being of her child. As a former nurse, she could know only too well the dosage and interactions of the drugs her daughter had ingested that lead to her death,” DiFiore said at the time.

Dymes has been hospitalized; in fact she, her lawyer and her psychiatrist were chastised last week by a judge when she did not appear in court while the plea deal was discussed.

Lacey Carr (Photo: Yearbook photo)

Here’s the DA’s entire statement:

Westchester County District Attorney Janet DiFiore announced that Kathleen Dymes (DOB 10/28/63) of 144 Hastings Avenue, Croton-on-Hudson, New York, pled guilty today to the entire indictment that charged her with:

• one count of Criminally Negligent Homicide, a class “E” Felony,
• one count of Endangering the Welfare of a Child, a class “A” Misdemeanor,
• one count of Criminal Possession of a Controlled Substance in the Seventh Degree, a class “A” Misdemeanor,

relating to the death of her 6-year-old daughter, Lacey Carr.

On April 5, 2015, Easter Sunday, at approximately 1:09 p.m., the Croton-on-Hudson Police Department received a 911 call from David Carr, the father of the victim, requesting that police respond to 144 Hastings Avenue in the Village of Croton-on-Hudson reporting that his daughter is cold and not breathing.

Upon arrival at the scene, police and medical personnel entered the residence and went to the second floor where they discovered the body of Lacey Carr lying on the bed unresponsive and not breathing.

Lacey was placed on the floor and CPR was performed.

Additional personnel arrived on scene and since the child was being treated, they tended to the mother, Kathleen Dymes who was in a kneeling position at the side of the bed on the floor. She, too, was unresponsive.

Lacey Carr was pronounced deceased at 1:27 p.m. Both the mother and the child’s body were then removed to the Phelps Memorial Hospital.

Croton police initiated an investigation.

Later that day, a search warrant was executed and in the second floor bedroom, where the body of Lacey Carr was discovered, police observed an open bottle of alcohol along with various and numerous over-the-counter, prescription and illegal drugs strewn about the room.

In addition, two handwritten notes were recovered from the bedroom.

Bail was continued at $25,000 cash or bond. Sentencing will be on April 12th, 2016. She faces a maximum sentence of four years in prison.

Assistant District Attorney Doreen Lloyd, Chief of the Child Abuse Bureau, and Assistant District Attorney Owein Levin of the Child Abuse Bureau are prosecuting the case.