Neenah mom enters insanity plea in boy's death
Brenda Thiel, 27, entered a plea of not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect in front of Judge Scott Woldt, who then ordered a mental exam.
Woldt scheduled further proceedings for July 25.
Woldt also granted a request from Thiel’s attorney, Joe Hildebrand, to ease her bond restrictions to allow contact with her mother, who is a witness in the case.
Woldt said he would approve phone calls between the two since all calls to and from inmates to the outside are recorded.
According to the criminal complaint and preliminary hearing testimony, Thiel told police May 5 that she heard voices telling her to “give her only son” just before she suffocated him with her bare hands in their Neenah home.
An autopsy conducted by the Fond du Lac County Medical Examiner’s Office concluded Caleb Thiel died of “asphyxia caused by suffocation” and that his death was a homicide.
Thiel remains under a $500,000 cash bond.
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