A Chevy Chase woman facing a murder charge in the Sunday drowning death of her infant daughter allegedly told police that she wanted to kill herself and her family, according to charging documents in the case.
On Monday, Montgomery County District Court Judge Holly D. Reed III postponed a bond hearing for Mackenzie Rose Colgan, 37, until Dec. 16. She ordered Colgan to be held without bond and to undergo an in-patient mental health examination for competency, according to digital court records. A preliminary hearing is set for Jan. 3.
Colgan’s attorney, Stephen Mercer, did not immediately respond to MoCo360’s phone call and email requests for comment Monday afternoon.
Colgan was arrested Sunday and charged with first-degree murder after county police and Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service (MCFRS) crews responded to her home in the 7300 block of Summit Avenue for a report of a pediatric drowning, according to police charging documents.
At 12:12 p.m. Sunday, 911 dispatchers answered a call from Colgan, who allegedly told them she had drowned her 3-month-old daughter, according to police radio transmissions. A few minutes later, dispatchers said Colgan advised them the baby was out of the water.
Police initially said in a statement released Sunday said the infant’s father had called police to report the drowning.
Upon arrival at the home, county police officers and MCFRS crews found an “unresponsive infant child in or around a bathtub” in an upstairs bathroom of the residence, charging documents state.
Prior to the drowning, Colgan allegedly went to the family room in the home, took her daughter and told family members she was going to give the infant a bath, according to charging documents. Colgan then went to an upstairs bathroom.
About 20 minutes later, Colgan returned downstairs and told the infant’s father that their daughter was dead, charging documents state. “The Father ran upstairs and found the Victim unresponsive in the bathtub (which was still filled with water). He then attempted to give the [infant] CPR and told [Colgan] to call 911,” the documents said.
Responding officers took Colgan into custody and she was transported to county police headquarters in Gaithersburg for questioning, the charging documents said.
Colgan elected to speak during her interview with investigators and said she woke up Sunday morning “with a plan that she was going to ‘end everything’ and kill herself,” charging documents state. She also said she intended to kill her two children and her husband.
Later, Colgan said, she went downstairs to get her infant and bring her to the upstairs bathroom where she placed the baby in a baby bathtub in the larger bathtub that was filled with water, according to charging documents.
Colgan also told investigators that she went into a bedroom after the drowning occurred, intending to jump out of the second-story window, documents said. However, “when she got out onto the ledge of the bedroom window she decided not to jump,” and went back downstairs to tell her husband what she had done.
MCFRS crews transported the infant to a local hospital where she was pronounced dead, charging documents said.
The infant was transported to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Baltimore where an autopsy was scheduled to occur Monday to determine the cause and manner of death, the statement said.
