Mary Gene Markley

Kosciusko County Prosecutor Dan Hampton has filed charges of felony child neglect against a Fort Wayne woman accused of withholding insulin for her diabetic child. The child slipped into a diabetic coma and was not expected to survive.

Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Department Detective J.D. Ayres conducted the investigation after an initial contact was made to Fort Wayne authorities by Lutheran Hospital on April 20 regarding a small child in critical condition. The child’s mother, Mary Gene Markley, 27, told investigators she checked her son’s insulin levels three times a day using an Accu Check Aviva meter. When officers checked the meters, which contain computer records of when they are used, they found it has not been used since April 16.

Investigators spoke with another adult who resides in the home who told them that on on the morning of April 20, the boy was very ill and vomiting. Markley asked Desirae Hamman to take to her to the pharmacy because she did not have any insulin for the child. The child was instead taken to Kosciusko Community Hospital and transferred to Lutheran in critical condition.

During the investigation, Hamman said that Markley and the child moved in with her on April 11 and at that time she observed two blood sugar test strips and two syringers, but she never saw insulin items in the trash and said she never observed Markley ever give the child a blood sugar test or administer insulin.

Markley is charged with C felony neglect of a dependent resulting in injury. She was being held at the Kosciusko County Jail on a $5,000 bond. The child’s well being is unknown, but StaceyPageOnline.com could find no death notice.