NEWPORT, Ore. -- A Lincoln County woman was jailed for murder after she reportedly threw her six-year-old son off the Yaquina Bay Bridge in Newport Monday night.
Authorities said 34-year-old Jillian McCabe called 911 at 6:25 p.m. to report what she did. She told police that she heard voices in her head telling her to throw the boy off the bridge.
The drop from the highest point on the bridge deck to the water below is 133 feet. The Coast Guard, Newport police and fire and the Lincoln County sheriff's office searched for a victim in the water around the bridge.
Shortly after 10 p.m. the boy's body was located near the Embarcadero Resort to the east of the bridge.
McCabe is from the Seal Rock area. She was accused of aggravated murder, murder, and first degree manslaughter and being held on $750,000 bail.
NBC News reports that a woman with that name created an online donation site for a son London, diagnosed with autism.
The Monday booking mug of McCabe matched the woman on the website, who said she lived in Hood River. Her writings and a blog by her once estranged husband describe how he suffered from multiple sclerosis and has an unspecified mass in his brain, NBC reported.
"I feel really sorry for the family," said Newport Police Chief Mark Miranda. "Losing a kid isn't easy."
He said counselors have been provided for law enforcement officers and rescue crews involved in the incident.
"It's one of these things you don't want to happen in your community," he said.
In May 2009, a woman tossed her two young children off a bridge in Portland, killing her 4-year-old son. A daughter, then 7 years old, survived. Amanda Stott-Smith was sentenced in 2010 to at least 35 years in prison.
The Yaquina Bay arched bridge, one of the most famous on the Oregon coast, opened in 1936. It's listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
