Mother Accused of Tying Son With Seat Belt Outside a Car and Dragging Him Down a Highway

A Texas woman was charged after being accused of wrapping a seat belt around her son and dragging him outside a car as punishment earlier this month.  Marion Stade, 61, of Wichita Fall, Texas, was charged with child endangerment in the May 2 incident, which was captured on video.  Stade is only the latest mother to be accused of a heinous crime involving a child under her care. Here's a rundown of some of the most notorious cases.

A passerby shot video of the incident on Highway 79 in Archer County, Texas.  The video showed the child tied with a seat belt and running outside the care as Stade drove. The video showed Stade driving and stopping as the boy hung onto the car and lifted his feet to avoid falling or being dragged.  Stade told a sheriff's deputy that the boy had called her a name, and she stopped the car and asked the boy to apologize.  Stade was charged and released on $100,000 bond.

Dee Dee Blanchard of Missouri injured her daughter, Gypsy Rose Blanchard, for more than 20 years as a result of Munchausen syndrome by proxy, a mental condition in which a caregiver harms a person in her care to gain attention.  Blanchard's behavior resulted in her daughter having multiple medical conditions that led to a life as an invalid and caused her to undergo several unnecessary surgeries. Blanchard reaped donations and sympathy from a wide variety of people, businesses and foundations.  Gypsy Rose ultimately struck back. The daughter pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the stabbing death of her mother in Springfield, Missouri, on June 14, 2015. She was sentenced to 10 years in prison,

Georgia woman Devin Moon was charged with murder and cruelty to a child in the death of her daughter, Reygan, 2, while the mother danced at a club in July 2018.  Officials found the child "unresponsive and cold to the touch" and said the girl weighed only 14 pounds, less than half the weight of a healthy child her age.  Moon left the girl alone while she danced for "10 to 12 hours most nights," Gwinnett County police said. Family members had called local social services out of concern for the girl before she was found dead.

Texas mother Andrea Yates was found not guilty by reason of insanity in the 2001 deaths of her five children, whom she drowned in a bathtub.  The children ranged in age from 6 months to 7 years when they died in their Houston home.  Yates reportedly suffered from severe postpartum depression, psychosis and schizophrenia. She killed the children despite treatment.  Yates was initially found guilty of murder and sentenced to life in prison, but the conviction was overturned. In 2006, she was found not guilty by reason of insanity and committed to a psychiatric facility, where she remains in custody.

Susan Smith, 23, drove a car into a lake in Union, South Carolina, drowning her sons Michael, 3, and Alex, 13 months, in 1994.  Smith had survived sexual abuse by her stepfather. Her family history included suicide and violence.  Initially, Smith said a Black man had hijacked her car and abducted her children, but police didn't believe her and arrested her for the crime instead.  She was convicted and sentenced to 30 years in prison.