Back in 2017, seven year-old Olivia Gant passed away due to having a “terminal illness”. However, after more than two years of her passing, prosecutors now say that she was never sick at all. As of Monday, October 21st, Olivia Gants’ mother, Kelly Renee Turner, is now believed to have faked her daughter’s illness and is being charged with 13 criminal counts, which include murder, child abuse, as well as fraud and theft.

It all began in 2016, when Olivia and her mother created a bucket list of things to do before she died. Months before she passed, Turner was able to help her daughter check off all of the things on her bucket list, which brought a lot of media attention to Gant, and even herself. Aside from the list, Tuner got several foundations involved, such as the Make-a-wish-foundation and GoFundMe, she was able to raise over $20,000 for her daughter’s case.

In the months before Olivia’s passing, Turner repeatedly told media sources that her daughter did not have much longer to live, as she claimed that she was diagnosed with neurogastrointestinal encephalomyopathy, which causes your body to shut down one system at a time. However, the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office reports that all these claims are false. In reality, it has now been learned that during Olivia’s final weeks, her mother placed her under hospice care and did not allow any medical treatment to be done on her daughter. Shortly after, Olivia passed away under a “Do not resuscitate” order. 

Pictured on left, Kelly Turner. Pictured on the right, Olivia Gant.

It wasn’t until a year after her death, that an investigation of Olivia’s death commenced. Authorities began by interviewing eleven doctors that Gant had seen about her “illness”. According to authorities, every doctor interviewed said that they never believed that Olivia had a terminal illness at all. One doctor claimed that “Olivia did not exhibit the symptoms Turner described most of the time.” According to the human resources report, another doctor named Robert Kramer, stated that he “never diagnosed Olivia with any of the diseases that Turner wrote about in the GoFundMe page.”

Last November, Gant’s remains were re-examined and there was no proof that intestinal failure was the cause of death. The cause of death is still undetermined, even after the examination. But, case workers were able to figure out her motivation. According to the Denver Post, the report affirmed that “There is a concern that Turner may have been benefiting from this attention and motivated some of the medical treatment Turner sought for Olvia Turner.” The report states that Gant allegedly had munchausen by proxy and it is her mother’s fault. 

Since this information was revealed, a spokesperson from GoFundMe has given refunds to all of the people who donated to Gant’s “condition,” and Turner is being held without bond at this very moment. However, the Children’s Hospital in Colorado has declined to make a comment to avoid compromising the case.