Death By Soda: Parents Made Daughter Drink So Much Soda She Died

A Tennessee couple was charged with murder and sentenced to 35 years in prison after they allegedly forced their 5-year-old daughter to drink so much soda that she died.

Randall Lee Vaughn and Mary Lavonne Vaughn of Surgoinsville, Tennessee, were charged with first-degree murder, aggravated child abuse, and two counts of aggravated child neglect, NBC News reported.

Alexa Linboom, 5, died in 2012, but it took investigators and medical experts nearly two years to discover and release her exact cause of death.

In 2014, officials finally announced that Alexa died of acute fluid intoxication causing hyponatremic encephalopathy. In layman’s terms, she died from drinking too much fluid.

The Hawkins County Sheriff’s Department said the Vaughns made Alexa drink 2.4 liters – about 81 ounces — of soda and water on the day she died.

The couple forced the cruel punishment on Alexa after she was allegedly caught drinking her mother’s grape soda. The Vaughns had reportedly told her not to drink the soda many times before.

Similar to how a parent who makes their child smoke an entire pack of cigarettes to quit smoking, the Vaughns made Alexa drink more than two liters of grape soda. The extreme liquid intake caused her brain to swell, eventually killing her.

Third Judicial District Attorney Berkley Bell told the Times-News of Kingsport that the Vaughns failed to care for Alexa when she was showing clear symptoms of a medical emergency, NBC News noted. The little girl was screaming in pain, went into a paralyzed state, and fell unconscious before the Vaughns took her to the hospital, according to Bell.

The couple were held in police custody on $500,000 bond in February 2014.

The Vaughns pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and aggravated child neglect, and in December 2014, they were sentenced to 35 years in prison, according to the New York Post. Alexa’s four other siblings reportedly helped provide key evidence against their parents.

Those siblings were placed in foster care.

Sources: NBC, New York Post / Photo credit: Hawkins County Sheriff’s Office via New York Post