Redding mother arraigned on charges of murdering 2-year-old daughter

A Redding woman charged with murdering her 2-year-old daughter was arraigned Friday in Shasta County Superior Court.

Macie Marie Silvey, 21, did not enter a plea in her brief court appearance on charges she poisoned her daughter with prescription drugs. Judge Adam Ryan denied bail for Silvey, who remained in Shasta County Jail on Friday.

Silvey was arrested by Redding police detectives after a seven-month investigation following the girl's death in January of this year.

In January, law enforcement and paramedics went to the intersection of Deschutes Road and Highway 44 after receiving a call about an unresponsive child in a vehicle.

The child was taken to the hospital but later died, police said. Investigators said that Silvey knew her child had consumed multiple medications and was displaying the symptoms of someone who had overdosed.

Police determined that the child’s death was suspicious and launched an investigation.

Silvey was interviewed by police several times following her child's death, telling officers different versions of events, police said in an investigative report.

When police interviewed Silvey's family, they found that there were multiple prescription bottles in the house and the child might have opened them, the report says.

During an autopsy on the girl, the pathologist found seven to 15 different prescription drugs in her system, which led to her death, the report says.

“Detectives worked tirelessly over the last seven months and determined that on the day of the child’s death, the 2-year-old was deliberately provided as well as given access to prescription medication with criminal intent by her mother,” police said in a news release.

Originally, Silvey told investigators that her child opened the medication bottles herself, the report says

In March, detectives asked Silvey to take a lie detector test. Instead, she wrote a suicide note, left behind her phone and pretended to be dead. The report does not specify how she faked her death.

Silvey left the area, obtained a new phone in someone else's name and obtained identification under a false name, the report says.

During an interview in July, Silvey said she stole some prescription medication from her mother and left the bottles open before her daughter died. Silvey said she was depressed because her daughter's father was in jail and he did not speak with his daughter at Christmas.

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The day the child died, she was sick and crying, so her mother said she gave the child a piece of a Xanax pill. Silvey said she also saw the child carrying a handful of pills and running around her house with them, the report says.

Silvey told detectives she took the pills away from her daughter and threw them away, along with the other pills she stole from her mother, the report says.

Silvey told investigators she saw her child with the pills again and put them in the girl's mouth. But she changed her story and told police she took the pills from the child's mouth and threw them away.

At some point that day the child took a nap and when she awoke Silvey told a housekeeper she was taking the girl to the hospital. Instead, she drove the child to Millville, hoping the Xanax would wear off, the report says.

"Macey Silvey wanted to leave the house with (the child) before her parents got home from work," the report says.

Silvey's mother called her daughter and tried to talk her into taking the child to the hospital, but she instead drove north, away from the hospital, police said.

Through location data on Silvey's cell phone, police determined she drove to Oak Run Road, stopped her car on the roadside and remained there for about an hour and 20 minutes, police said. She then drove back toward Redding and called 911.

Fire and emergency medical personnel met Silvey and her child at Deschutes Road and Highway 44. The child appeared to be dead, but medical personnel attempted lifesaving efforts, the report says.

She was taken to Mercy Medical Center in Redding where a doctor declared the child dead, the report says.

On Tuesday, Silvey was charged in Shasta County Superior Court with one count each of murder and kidnapping. Included among the charges were special allegations that the murder was done through poisoning, the killing showed planning and professionalism and that the victim was vulnerable.

Reporter Damon Arthur welcomes story tips at 530-338-8834, by email at damon.arthur@redding.com and on Twitter at @damonarthur_RS. Help local journalism thrive by subscribing today!

This article originally appeared on Redding Record Searchlight: Redding mother arraigned on charges of murdering 2-year-old daughter