Mother who drove children into Kansas River in Lawrence sentenced to life in prison
A woman who drove her two small children into the Kansas River in Lawrence was sentenced to life in prison Tuesday.
Scharron R. Dingledine, 26, will have no chance at parole for 25 years after pleading guilty in the death of her 5-year-old daughter and the attempted drowning of her toddler son.
Dingledine, in mental distress, had driven to Lawrence from Columbia, Mo., Aug. 3 and watched her children playing in the river when she determined she could kill them there, according to court documents.
She drove her SUV into the river in an apparent attempt at a murder-suicide, police said.
But Lawrence police officers responding to reports of a vehicle in the water saw debris from the submerged SUV floating on the river and attempted to rescue the family.
Dingledine was pulled from the water against her will, shouting, “Let me die!” police said. An officer carried Dingledine’s 1-year-old son from the water. But an exhaustive search for her 5-year-old daughter was unsuccessful and her body was recovered the next day.
Dingledine had been going through domestic trouble with her boyfriend, records showed. She had fled Columbia with the children in a stolen SUV.
A detective who talked with Dingledine wrote that “she decided she was going to kill herself and kill the children because she didn’t want anyone else to have them.”
Dingledine pleaded guilty Dec. 17 to first-degree murder and attempted first-degree murder. In addition to the life sentence for murder, she was also sentenced to 155 months in prison for attempted murder.
This story was originally published January 22, 2019 at 6:13 PM.
