Mum who faked sons illness & made doctors perform unnecessary surgery insists shes innoc

AS 13-year-old Colby Tutt lay in a hospice bed, apparently dying from malnutrition and sepsis, his parents Danita and Clint Tutt made funeral arrangements and even bought a coffin and headstone.

But after he made a remarkable recovery, their joy turned to despair when Danita, 44, was arrested and charged - accused of trying to starve her son to death.

In 2018, the Texas mum was sentenced to five years in prison after being found guilty of attempting to murder her son by intentionally depriving him of food and water.

But in the latest episode of the documentary series Accused: Guilty or Innocent, which airs tonight on Crime+Investigation, Danita protests her innocence, saying her only crime was to care for her son.

Speaking before her trial, while she was at home on bail, Danita said: “To be accused of hurting my own son, it makes me want to throw up.

“It breaks my heart and shatters it into a million pieces.”

Under the knife 17 times in 13 years

Colby Tutt was a premature baby who suffered considerable health problems, including heart  disease, kidney malfunction and gastro-intestinal problems.

“I was desperate to touch him but I wasn’t able to hold him for three months,” explains Danita.

“When he came home he was on a heart machine. He was only nine inches long and you know, with a child born that small, you are going to have problems when they get older.

“Every time we turned around they were telling us ‘prepare yourself, he might not make it,’ but we wouldn’t give up.”

Colby’s gastric condition meant he was on constant medication and needed drugs to help him digest food and go to the toilet.

He was subjected to 17 operations in 13 years but in August 2015, his stomach and colon issues worsened and he became dangerously malnourished.

Every time we turned around they were telling us ‘prepare yourself, he might not make it

Over eight weeks, Colby had three operations to help him swallow, digest and eliminate waste, including an ileostomy – where a central line is put in to remove waste into a colostomy bag – which led to blood poisoning.

According to the documentary, doctors at the Cook Children’s Medical Centre in Fort Worth then told told Danita and Clint their son was going to die and that he needed to go to a hospice.

“They were stunned,” Danita’s lawyer Terri Moore tells the programme. “Colby has always survived every problem he’s ever had and in order to be referred to a hospice there has to be a prognosis from a doctor that the kid has six months or less to live.

“This was devastating to Danita, Clint and her whole family.”

Mum 'denied Colby food and drink'

What happened next is the core of the criminal case.

In May 2016, Connie Koehler, owner of Ronald McDonald House, made a 999 call to report Danita, who she claimed was deliberately withholding food and water from her son.

She said she had been told by Danita not to feed Colby as he could not digest anything, but had subsequently found he was able to consume solid foods and liquids.

Despite a ‘terminal’ diagnosis of severe malnutrition, she said, Colby had rallied and was not dying at all.

She also revealed that Danita and Clint had turned up at 10pm, the evening before, and taken their son home.

It feels like someone took a knife, stabbed me in my heart and is stabbing me in the heart over and over

The Child Protection Service (CPS) instantly sprang into action, taking Colby into emergency custody the same day.

A week later, his brother Colton, nine, was also taken away.

Danita was arrested, accused of attempted murder, injuring her son through unnecessary operations and withholding food in an attempt to starve him – all of which she denies.

“Me and that accusation don't go in the same sentence,” she says.

“I can't even wrap my head around it. It destroys me as a mother. It destroys me as a human being.

“It feels like someone took a knife, stabbed me in my heart and is stabbing me in the heart over and over.

“My whole world is Colby, I know what's been said about me and I'm frightened that I won't get a fair trial.”

Danita 'begged for drugs to make him go to sleep and not wake up'

Now facing a lengthy battle to clear her name, Danita was also desperate to get her children back.

“We cried every night because we had no idea where they took him,” she says, breaking down on the documentary. “Can you imagine not knowing where your child is?”

After a nine month court battle, the CPS dropped the case and the couple won custody of the boys.

But the District Attorney still decided to go ahead with Danita’s prosecution.

They accused her of being an "attention-seeking type person" who enjoyed "the attention she gets for having a medically fragile child".

They cited thousands of Facebook posts on Colby’s condition as proof she had Munchausen by Proxy Syndrome – meaning she craved the attention she got as the mother of a sick child.

His mother refused to have any food or drink brought to Colby, stating eating or drinking would only delay the inevitable

They claimed this led to her exaggerating or inducing his symptoms in order to convince doctors to operate.

In a statement read to Danita by her lawyer, Connie said: “His mother refused to have any food or drink brought to Colby, stating eating or drinking would only delay the inevitable.”

But Danita claims it was Connie who told her to withhold food, saying: “Connie told me that eating and drinking is prolonging him. I didn't know what prolonging the inevitable was until she said it to me.”

It was claimed she had arranged the funeral and bought a coffin and headstone for Colby.

Connie added: “Mum has repeatedly asked, can’t we just give Colby something to make him go to sleep and not wake up.”

Again, Danita claims she was led by Connie.

“We would have never known what to do”, she says. “All the stuff she said I did, was all direction from her, she would tell us ‘I'm in control, we have the final say.’

“I just wanted him not to feel the pain, where he could enjoy himself and feel good.”

'Flood' of Munchausen cases from same doctor

Lawyer Terri points out that, while Munchausen by Proxy Syndrome is rare – and only two people had been prosecuted outside of Texas – a flood of cases against parents had come from Cook Children’s Medical Centre and resulted in five convictions.

She pointed out that the hospital had a Munchausen expert who testified at all the trials.

She also expresses concern that the majority of the witnesses would be doctors who were held in “high esteem” and had “automatic credibility” with jurors.

But she questioned how Danita could have persuaded them to operate unnecessarily.

“What can a mother have said to make a surgeon cut open a child?” she asks. “God forbid, if you question a doctor or things don’t go to plan, they’re going to turn the table on you. This is a recipe of how a great mama finds herself a criminal defendant.”

She adds: “My view of Danita is that she is absolutely innocent of these charges.

"I would far rather defend someone who is guilty, it doesn't feel weird defending someone who is guilty.

“What's horrible is defending someone who with every bit of your being, you believe is innocent.”

What is Munchausen by Proxy Syndrome?

Munchausen Syndrome is a mental disorder where a person invents or exaggerates an illness for sympathy or attention.

Munchausen by Proxy means a parent invents medical conditions for his or her child to get attention or sympathy.

In extreme cases, they will also induce symptoms in the child to support the lie causing physical harm.

Family devastated by guilty verdict

Asked if she’d thought about what would happen if she was found guilty, before the trial, Danita says: “I’ve thought about never being able to see our boys, never being able to attend another birthday party, no Christmases, no thanksgiving, no cuddles at night. No life at all.”

But Terri’s fears that the jurors would side with the medics proved to be justified.

After a three week trial, Danita was found guilty of attempted murder and of withholding food from her son.

She was sentenced to five years in jail.

“When I heard guilty I instantly got sick and started to cry,” says husband Clint. “My heart hurt for Danita having to sit there and hear that."

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To this day Terri is convinced Danita’s only “crime” was to care too much.

“I sincerely believe with every fibre of my being that there’s been a terrible mistake by the jury,” she says. “They absolutely got it wrong.

“Those two precious little boys of hers, her husband Clint, her mum, her dad, Clint’s parents that live next door - they are such a close knit family. This is going to harm them all.”

Accused: Guilty or Innocent? airs on Crime+Investigation tonight

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