PORTSMOUTH, N.H. – The Texas woman charged with killing her 6-year son in New Hampshire is going to be held without bail on a second degree murder charge pending another court hearing.
Forty-two-year-old Julianne McCrery of Irving, Texas stared at the floor during a brief court appearance Thursday in Portsmouth District Court and appeared to be crying as she was led out by police.
When asked by Judge Sawako Tachibana Gardner if she wanted a court-appointed lawyer, McCrery answered in a clear voice, "yes, ma'am."
McCrery was taken to Portsmouth on Thursday after she appeared in a Massachusetts court and waived extradition.
McCrery is charged with asphyxiating her son, 6-year-old Camden Hughes, on Saturday in Hampton. His body was found in South Berwick, Maine.
McCrery's lawyer called it "a tragic case."
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
A Texas woman accused of killing her 6-year-old son and leaving his body on a dirt road in Maine may have come to New England to kill her son and commit suicide, saying the boy is "in heaven" and she wants to go there as soon as possible, her lawyer said Thursday.
Julianne McCrery, 42, of Irving, Texas, waived extradition during a brief appearance in Concord District Court on Thursday and was expected to be transported to New Hampshire to face a second-degree murder charge.
Before the hearing, defense lawyer George Murphy said he believes investigators have a confession from McCrery, and he said that based on conversations with his tearful client that he believes she came to the region with the idea of taking her son's life and committing suicide.
"I believe she was up here to bring both herself and her son to heaven," Murphy said. "She told me, `I love my son very much. I know where he is. He's in heaven. I want to go there as soon as possible.'"
Investigators believe McCrery killed 6-year-old Camden Hughes on Saturday in Hampton, N.H., and then left the body in South Berwick, Maine.
The case drew national attention as the boy went unidentified for days because no one reported him missing. State police in Maine released a computer-generated image showing a boy with blond hair and blue eyes.
McCrery's friend, Shirley Miller of Arlington, Texas, said "Julie" McCrery suffered from mood swings and sometimes would just "up and go" without telling anyone. Last fall, she took her son out of kindergarten and went to Seattle and Nebraska before returning to Texas where she was living with Miller's adult son.
Miller said McCrery "was up one minute and down the next" but she would never have believed that McCrery would hurt her son.
"I would say she was a caring mother," Miller said. "I don't know why she did this unless she just flipped out."
Preliminary autopsy findings showed that the cause of Camden's death was asphyxiation and the manner of death was homicide, according to Maine's chief medical examiner. The homicide remains under investigation.
McCrery was detained Wednesday at a Massachusetts highway rest stop after police got a tip on her pickup truck, which matched a vehicle spotted near the spot where the boy's body was found covered with a blanket.
Her detention Wednesday set off a rapid-fire chain of events in which the investigation shifted from Maine, where the boy's body was discovered, to Massachusetts, where McCrery was questioned, and finally to New Hampshire, where authorities believe the boy died and the formal charges were ultimately filed.
After leaving Massachusetts, McCrery was due to make her first court appearance Thursday afternoon in District Court in Portsmouth, N.H.
Court documents and interviews paint a conflicting portrait of a devoted mother who loved her young son and wrote a book about how to get a good night's sleep called "Good night, sleep tight!" Her biography on Amazon.com said she drove a school bus and operated a cement mixer.
"She's a very likable person. I've always gotten along with her. Most everybody likes her, that's why this was such a shocker," Shirley Miller said.
But Texas public records show that McCrery was arrested at least twice on prostitution charges and once for possession with intent to distribute drugs. In 2009, she was sentenced to one year in prison for a misdemeanor conviction of prostitution. In 2004, she was sentenced to three years of probation for a felony conviction of possession of a controlled substance.
Murphy said McCrery told him that she'd attempted suicide within the past few days and had tried to kill herself several times in 2004, although she did not explain why, Murphy said. She did not explain why she came to New England, he said.
Her son died Saturday, the same day his body was discovered by a local resident in South Berwick, Maine, near the state line with New Hampshire, officials said. He had not been reported missing, and amid several frustrating days seeking his identity. Investigators believe he died in Hampton, N.H., where a motel room was being treated as a crime scene. All three locations are with 65 miles of each other.
A long-time friend of McCrery's, Christian von Atzigen, of Irving, Texas, told police he recognized the boy from the image distributed by state police.
"We didn't want to believe it," von Atzigen said.
"Julie's a good person. If you would ever ask me if she would harm a hair on that precious little boy's head, I would say never," he told The Associated Press. "She loves that boy."
Von Atzigen said he last saw McCrery on Easter, when she came to his house to get a part to fix her hot water heater. While she was there, she dropped off some of Camden's toys for his 2-year-old son, he said.
He said he doesn't know why McCrery was in Maine.
"My wife talked to her a couple of days ago and everything seemed OK," he said. "There was no mention of her going anywhere."
Maine State Police had enlisted the help of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service after a witness noticed naval insignia on a truck being driven by a woman near where the body was found.
McCrery was taken into custody at a highway rest stop in Massachusetts after police got a tip she was there. She was in a truck that matched the description of the vehicle, authorities said.
In Maine, the case has led to an outpouring of emotion. Several hundred people attended a candlelight vigil in the boy's memory Tuesday night in front of the South Berwick town hall.
Near where the boy was found, people have placed three crosses, dozens of stuffed animals, candles, flowers, a baseball and other children's items. A framed piece of paper says, "God Bless This Little Boy."
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Associated Press writers Russell Contreras in Boston; Linda Stewart Ball in Dallas; David Sharp in Portland, Maine; Clarke Canfield in Alfred, Maine; and Kathy McCormack in Concord, N.H.; contributed to this report.
