Pennsylvania Woman Allegedly Poisons Adopted Son With Washer Fluid; Charged With Murder

A Pennsylvania woman who said she poisoned her 11-year-old adopted disabled son with washer fluid to "free him" was charged with the child's murder.

Mary E. Diehl, 62, appeared on Monday at a preliminary hearing. She was charged with one count of criminal homicide on Nov. 8 after her son's murder came to light. Diehl has since been held in Crawford County Jail in Saegertown without bond, The Meadville Tribune reported.

Diehl's son, Najir William Diehl, was found dead at their home at 7621 Mallard Road in East Fairfield Township in his bed around 10:30 a.m. on Sept. 6.

Diehl told investigators that she initially believed the boy had died from suffocating in his bedding due to a seizure. The boy reportedly was mobility impaired due to his disability. Najir was pronounced dead at the scene.

Trooper Kevin Geibel, a criminal investigator with state police at Meadville, told the outlet that a Crawford County Coroner had initially ruled the death as asphyxiation due to seizure disorder considering the child's history of seizures.

No autopsy was performed but blood samples were sent from testing.

On Oct. 26, the coroner’s detected traces of methanol in his blood samples. Subsequent additional testing results received in early November confirmed methanol poisoning, according to The Meadville Tribune.

Cops then interviewed Diehl again on Nov. 8 and during the interrogation, she claimed that the boy did not have access to methanol, saying he was "not out of her sight at any point," and that he couldn't open the child-proof caps of the bottles filled with the substance kept in a separate room.

However, when investigators pressed her harder, Diehl confessed that she gave the child a plastic cup filled with approximately five inches of windshield washer fluid "knowing he’d drink anything given to him," Geibel said in court, according to Law and Crime.

In a subsequent search operation conducted at Diehl's home, the toxic fluid was recovered but the detectives failed to retrieve the plastic cup which she used to offer Najir the poison. Magisterial District Judge Amy Nicols reportedly scheduled Diehl’s trial for May 2022.