The Colorado mother who is charged with murder in the death of her 16-year-old daughter for allegedly encouraging the girl’s alcoholism went to rehab seven days after the girl died, her attorneys said in court Thursday.
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Gretchen Ryan, 55, is charged with second-degree murder in the death of Grace Ryan, who died in the family’s Arvada home on March 9. Gretchen Ryan, who was herself an alcoholic, provided her daughter with significant amounts of alcohol and failed to seek help for the teenager even when the girl vomited blood, became incontinent and begged for help, police alleged in an affidavit.
“I’m in so much pain I can’t keep doing this. Do something,” Grace messaged her mother five days before she died, according to the affidavit.
Gretchen Ryan spent several days in a hospital after her daughter’s death, then went to her sister’s house and entered rehab on March 16, attorney Dilan Sutliff said in court Thursday as she argued that Ryan’s $500,000 cash-only bond should be reduced.
Gretchen Ryan went to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings once a week during the several-week span after Grace’s death but before she was arrested in mid-May, Sutliff said. She has the support of her immediate family and has never failed to show up to court, Sutliff argued.
“She has been completely sober since the police showed up to her house on March 9,” Sutliff said.
Investigators found that Gretchen Ryan supplied Grace with significant amounts of alcohol — they each drank about a bottle of vodka a day, according to the affidavit — and that the pair worked together to hide their alcoholism from Grace’s father. Police found 173 empty alcohol bottles hidden in Grace’s bedroom after she died.
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Chief Deputy District Attorney Tyra Forbes argued against the bond reduction Thursday, and noted that Gretchen Ryan never helped her daughter enter rehab even when the girl pleaded for help again and again.
“She went to rehab,” Forbes said of Gretchen Ryan. “Rehab that her child asked for repeatedly in the months leading up to her death. And she wouldn’t get it for (Grace), because she was afraid of the consequences for her.”
Before her arrest, Gretchen Ryan told investigators several times that she felt like she killed her daughter. In messages to the teenager before Grace died, Gretchen Ryan described her own actions as “child abuse and murder” and talked about going to prison. Grace told a friend that her mother didn’t want her to get help.
County Court Judge Sara Garrido refused to reduce Gretchen Ryan’s bond on Thursday, finding the woman might not return to court if released.
“I am not basing that decision on the facts of the case. I am not. The facts are as bad as they can be,” the judge said, going on to find that Gretchen Ryan did not present a safety risk to the community. “…However, I do not believe, and I have no confidence — I don’t see any reason why you would come back to court to face the charges that you face, the facts and allegations you face, and to face a likely lengthy prison sentence that might be coming your way.”
Gretchen Ryan, who was handcuffed and shackled, appeared to begin crying when the bond reduction was denied. She is next due in court Aug. 24.
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