Angel Lynn Marine Varner appears in a booking photo. (Potter County Sheriff’s Office)
A Texas woman killed her infant child, threw him on the floor, went to sleep – and then started a GoFundMe to raise money for his funeral and cremation, according to authorities in Amarillo.
Angel Lynn Marine Varner, 20, stands accused of one count of murder, according to Potter County jail records reviewed by Law&Crime.
The young mother is accused of killing 7-month-old Jackson Knight Blackmon sometime early Monday morning. Then, she started a GoFundMe in honor of the child on Tuesday, according to local ABC and The CW Plus affiliate KVII. The defendant was arrested on Wednesday.
Officers initially responded to calls about an unresponsive infant at a residence on Center Street at around 11:30 a.m., police say. There, they were alerted by paramedics that Jackson was already dead.
Varner lived in a duplex with the boy’s father and two other roommates, according to court documents obtained by KVII. One of those roommates allegedly told investigators she and Jackson woke up around 2:30 a.m. The boy was crying in his crib when his mother allegedly got up and went to go get him, the document says.
The roommate, who was sleeping in the living room with her boyfriend on the night in question, allegedly told police that after the child’s mother picked him up, Varner took him into her bedroom. After that, the roommate allegedly told police, she heard a “thud” that came from inside the defendant’s bedroom and then went back to sleep.
An ensuing autopsy showed the boy had died from blunt force trauma, according to law enforcement.
Varner was interviewed after the autopsy and allegedly admitted to being violent with Jackson several times that night.
First, she said she threw her child on the bed, then she wrapped him up in swaddling blankets and “applied pressure to his abdomen” until he stopped crying, police said. After that, Varner allegedly admitted to throwing her baby boy on the floor of the bedroom.
By that time, police say, Varner knew the child was no longer breathing. But, instead of calling 911, police said she simply went back to sleep.
The day before allegedly admitting to killing her child, Varner reportedly set up a GoFundMe that suggested the boy’s death was a mystery.
“We are raising money for the funeral, memorial, and cremation of mine and Seans baby boy,” the since-removed post reads. “He died at 7 months and 8 days. He was the light of our life and soon we will know what happened.”
The post went on to note that some of the money would go towards jewelry containing Jackson’s remains.
“But we need help getting his stuff planned for. Most of the services are free. But we still need to pay for some of the basics. Plus we need an urn to put his ashes in. And we want to get a few jewelry items that has his ashes in them so he will always be with us.”
In comments to the TV station, GoFundMe confirmed the post had been taken down. The URL is no longer active.
“The fundraiser has been removed from the platform and all donors have been refunded,” a GoFundMe spokesperson told KVII. “The organizer did not receive any of the funds raised.”
The child also had his own Facebook page.
A post on Monday, at 12:40 p.m., reads: “My poor baby…. He’s no longer with us… I don’t know the details… But he’s gone….”
Based on publicly available contact information, Varner appears to have been the owner and administrator of that page.
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