CASTLE ROCK, Colo. — The mother who is accused of killing her daughter after faking her illnesses appeared in Douglas County court Tuesday morning, where a judge set her bond at $250,000.
Kelly Renee Turner is due back in court on Friday, Feb. 28 at 10 a.m. for an arraignment hearing.
Turner, also known as Kelly Gant, faces 13 separate counts – 11 of them felonies, including first-degree murder – in the death of her middle daughter, according to a grand jury indictment unsealed Oct. 21, 2019.
The heart-tugging story of Olivia Gant — Turner's daughter — played out on television stations and in newspapers in the Denver area and nationally — a sick little girl experiencing the thrill of riding in a police car and shooting water on a fire truck before succumbing to an untreatable mix of medical issues.
But the indictment paints a much more sinister picture: Multiple doctors who didn’t believe Olivia was terminally ill battling a mother who was so persuasive that she convinced one of the physicians to sign a “do not resuscitate” order and ultimately withdrew all of her daughter’s medical care – including what is known as Total Parenteral Nutrition, which provided nourishment through an intravenous line.
At the time, according to the indictment, Turner argued that Olivia was so sick, and her quality of life so poor, that the humane thing to do was to stop medical care and allow her to die.
Olivia died a few weeks later, on Aug. 20, 2017.
Although the indictment does not make clear the specific cause of Olivia’s death, it notes that Turner withdrew medical care and nourishment in the girl’s final weeks.
Turner also is accused of defrauding the Medicaid system, two foundations that provide memorable experiences to terminally ill children and hundreds of people who donated to her online fundraising page.
The indictment alleges that she defrauded the Medicaid system of more than $538,000. And it further alleges that she ripped off both a funeral home and a cemetery that handled the girl’s arrangements.
Turner also spent time in prison for an injury to a child conviction stemming from an incident in Texas in 1998.
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In addition, Turner faces a child abuse charge accusing her of endangering another daughter, who is now 11 years old. Turner claimed publicly the girl had cancer – something the girl’s medical records show was not true.
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