When Your Mother Tries to Kill You

Summary

Juicy Crimes with Heather McDonald

Episode: When Your Mother Tries to Kill You

Date: June 3, 2026
Guest: Kenna Renee Harper

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Episode Overview

In this gripping episode of Juicy Crimes, Heather McDonald interviews Kenna Renee Harper—a survivor whose own mother attempted to end her life when she was only ten years old. Kenna bravely recounts her tumultuous childhood, the harrowing events of that Christmas night, and how she survived both physically and emotionally. With a unique blend of compassion and humor, Heather encourages Kenna to share the lighter but no less poignant reflections on trauma, healing, and the complexities of family, custody, and resilience.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Kenna’s Blended and Tumultuous Childhood

Timestamps: 01:09–18:07

• Family dynamics: Parents divorced before Kenna turned one. Multiple step-siblings and constantly bounced between states and homes (Idaho, Washington, Portland, Seattle).
• Early relationship with mother:
  • Deeply enmeshed, codependent relationship.
  • "She was the soccer mom. She was like, everything." (01:41)
  • Co-slept with mom until age ten; felt like an emotional extension rather than a separate individual.
• Relationship with father:
  • Tumultuous co-parenting, addiction issues (opioids/alcohol for dad, benzodiazepines for mom).
  • Frequent feeling of divided loyalties—guilt at showing happiness to one parent in front of the other.
  • “It is very unnatural for a child to have to share between two parents and two homes.” (Heather, 06:25)
• Parental addiction:
  • Mother pill-shopped, hid prescriptions throughout house.
  • "She had multiple pills hidden throughout our whole house in different baskets." (Kenna, 10:32)
• Responsibility shifted to Kenna at a young age after her much younger sister was born—parentified, responsible for household tasks and sister’s care.
• Socioeconomic context: Mother was charming, could get jobs (e.g. Kindercare director), but couldn’t keep them due to addiction and depression cycles.

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2. The Christmas Night Attempted Murder

Timestamps: 18:08–35:10

• Set-up:
  • Christmas 2006; Kenna was 10, returning from her dad’s house to her mother’s.
  • Noted a shift in her mom’s mood when Kenna called to share Disneyland trip news.
  • “She was not as enthusiastic as I hoped. …so instantly I was shut down.” (Kenna, 18:24)
• Events leading up to the poisoning:
  • Mother seemed distant, distracted, preparing something on the computer (was a last will and testament).
  • Kenna had a minor toothache; mother overly insistent she take "medicine."
  • "She was very forceful. It's like, McKenna, you are going to take this medicine." (Kenna, 25:39)
• The attack:
  • Forced to drink a concoction with 50–100 crushed pills (benzos, painkillers), disguised with Capri Sun.
  • Kenna quickly became lethargic, lost consciousness, and only recalls next waking in a hospital.
  • "[My mom] claims that she was trying to take both of our lives." (Kenna, 27:20)
• Mother’s behavior:
  • Staged the scene, called 911 four hours after Kenna ingested the mixture.
  • On 911 call: “I just snapped. That’s the exact words.” (Kenna, 29:20)
  • Calm, high demeanor on the call; no immediate concern for Kenna.
• Medical aftermath:
  • Kenna was airlifted and received three doses of Narcan, was in a coma for days, but survived against overwhelming odds.

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3. Immediate Aftermath and Family Reaction

Timestamps: 32:13–43:10

• Waking up in hospital:
  • "I woke up and I'm in this huge room, and my dad's holding my hand. …I was so confused." (Kenna, 32:21)
• Family & foster care:
  • Mother's side in shock—knew she was unwell, not the full extent.
  • Placed immediately in foster care; describes traumatic culture shock of sudden relocation.
  • Brother’s emotional reaction: “He just held me and sobbed… I’ll never forget that moment.” (Kenna, 37:00)
• Custody and relocation:
  • Ultimately placed with aunt and uncle on dad’s side in Idaho.
  • Never allowed proper goodbyes—“There was no closure.” (Kenna, 42:33)
• Little sister (age 3) went to live with her biological father; minimal contact for several years.

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4. The Legal Battle and Trial

Timestamps: 43:10–66:22

• Prosecution and defense:
  • Mother posted bail, lived on house arrest for nearly two years awaiting trial.
  • Defense attempted insanity plea; cited diagnoses (BPD, bipolar, anxiety) and insanity, but premeditation undermined defense (the will, methodical behavior).
  • “If someone just snaps, they’re just making a split second decision. …It was very methodical.” (Kenna, 55:01)
• Kenna’s experience testifying:
  • Testified at age 12 with child advocate support; conflicting feelings, but realized her mother was unsafe.
  • Defense tried to confuse her, focusing on small inconsistencies, but Kenna held her own.
  • "He tried to paint me as an uncredible witness. …I was probably a little sassy in the room." (Kenna, 51:49)
• Verdict and sentencing:
  • Jury convicted mother of attempted murder of a child and child neglect (charges served concurrently).
  • Kenna delivered a victim impact statement to ensure her sister’s safety and request maximum sentence.
  • “I had to get both of their signatures… I had a no contact order for life against her.” (Kenna, 65:10)
• Sentence: 12 years, served 9 in a lenient women’s correctional facility (not maximum security).

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5. Aftermath: Healing, Ongoing Contact, and Insights

Timestamps: 66:23–80:53

• Prison visit and attempted contact:
  • Kenna met her mom at 18 to seek closure—encounter was full of excuses and deflection; mother attempted to resume old patterns of control.
  • “She wanted to talk about what she was gonna do when she gets out… like we were supposed to pick up where we left off.” (Kenna, 74:42)
  • Mother sent manipulative and sometimes angry emails if Kenna did not respond quickly.
• Post-release behavior:
  • Mother attempted repeated contact via fake social media accounts, even impersonating others.
  • No contact with Kenna now; minimal contact with Kenna’s younger sister.
• Personal journey:
  • Moved multiple times, lived with various family members, hid her story in new places out of shame and fear of judgment.
  • “I didn't want to be defined by the worst thing that had ever happened to me.” (Kenna, 72:16)
• Empowerment, healing, and advocacy:
  • Now shares her story openly—“There is life after trauma and you can heal from things like this… you can make your own path and create a beautiful life after.” (Kenna, 80:31)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On childhood:
  “I just thought my mom is my best friend. She tells me everything, I tell her everything. We co-slept until I was 10.” (Kenna, 05:08)
• On parentification:
  “It became me being responsible for my sister and my brother being responsible for me. …if I wasn't changing my sister's diapers, getting her food, making her dinners, then those things weren't getting done.” (Kenna, 13:57)
• On the poisoning:
  “I took one sip and I instantly... The taste was absolutely horrible. …There was 50 to 100 prescription pain pills and benzodiazepines crushed up in that concoction.” (Kenna, 25:45)
• On her mom’s 911 call:
  “She said... My daughter does not know she took these. I gave my daughter these. She doesn’t know. She just got back from her D and I just snapped.” (Kenna, 29:20)
• On testifying:
  “For a long time, I hated defense attorneys because of my experience. …I was really sticking up for myself.” (Kenna, 51:49)
• On healing:
  “You don't have to be stuck or defined by what your parents did… you can make your own path and create a beautiful life after.” (Kenna, 80:31)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Kenna describes childhood and family dynamics: 01:09–18:07
• The attempted murder & hospital recovery: 18:08–35:10
• Foster care, family reaction, custody shifts: 35:11–43:10
• The long legal process, trial, and sentencing: 43:10–66:22
• Kenna’s prison meeting with her mom and aftermath: 66:22–80:31
• Reflections on trauma, healing, advocacy: 80:31–80:53

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Where To Find Kenna

• Instagram & TikTok: @kenareneeharper (verified; links on her Instagram profile)
• Content: Kenna shares her ongoing journey, healing insights, and answers to questions about trauma, family court, and resilience.

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Episode Tone

Throughout, Heather’s approach is empathetic yet probing, mixing seriousness for the gravity of Kenna’s story with moments of levity (e.g., questions about hair, clothes, or the “juicy” elements of true crime). Kenna herself is reflective, candid, and leans into her own hard-won wisdom and humor about her journey.

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Final Takeaway

Kenna’s survival, healing, and advocacy highlight extraordinary strength—and the importance of confronting family trauma. She emphasizes that no matter what you’ve survived, you’re not defined by your parents’ choices, and a beautiful life after trauma is possible.

Transcript

[Heather McDonald]

Foreign. Hello and welcome to Juicy Crimes. I am speaking to a victim turned survivor whose story I found on social media. Beautiful, smart, articulate young mom. I'm very excited to have Kenna Renee Harper on the show to tell us her insane story about her mother and the crime that she committed. Welcome to the show. I'm so glad you could make it.

[Kenna Renee Harper]

Thank you so much for having me. It's an honor.

[Heather McDonald]

Thank you. Well, I came across you talking about your true story of how your mother tried to kill you and did spend time in prison for it. And I immediately just wanted to reach out to you and kind of get your story here. Let's just start from the beginning. What was your childhood like from some of your earliest, earliest memory?

[Kenna Renee Harper]

Yeah, I think I always was introduced to chaos, but didn't know it at the time. I had parents who were divorced. I think they were married while pregnant, married and divorced, all within my first year. And they were blended families. So my mom had a child before my dad, and my dad had children before my mom, and then they had me, but I was the only one from them too. And then they lived in different states. So the divorce caused me to go back and forth, always between.

[Heather McDonald]

What two areas were you going from?

[Kenna Renee Harper]

So initially it was Idaho and Washington, and then my mom moved around a ton. So then it was, you know, Portland, Westland area, then back up to the Seattle area. So I was always on a plane, always between houses, and always integrated into a blended family. And I have some of my earliest memories I just. I thought were normal. My mom, honestly was my best friend for the first, I would say, seven or eight years of my life. I. I felt like I had a pretty normal childhood. I look back now, and it was very codependent relationship. But I did everything with my mom. She. She got dance. She got me into, you know, all of the things I wanted to do. Basketball, soccer. She was the soccer mom. She was like, everything.

[Heather McDonald]

When you say. I'm gonna go. When you say it was a codependent relationship, are you now recognizing as an adult that you as a child were codependent on making sure she was okay and feeling that she was okay? So there was a little that going on. Is that what you're talking about?

[Kenna Renee Harper]

Yes. And almost I'm realizing it now, it was enmeshment. Also, my mom was heavily reliant on me for her emotions as well.

[Heather McDonald]

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[Kenna Renee Harper]

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[Kenna Renee Harper]

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[Heather McDonald]

And with your dad, so did they have a decent co parenting relationship? Was he paying child support? Like what was that post divorce relationship like?

[Kenna Renee Harper]

He was paying child support. Their relationship was always tumultuous and there would be times where they were Screaming on the phone to each other. They were always angry with each other. But then on the flip side of things, my mom would tell me that they're emailing and potentially we could go live with your dad again. And, you know, oh, we're talking again. So it was always this back and forth. I never knew if they were good or if they were bad. I never knew if they loved each other or if they hated each other. There were many times where we would do a drop off at the airport and there would be a big scene between them two and I would be bawling my eyes out because I didn't want to leave my mom. I felt guilty for having a relationship with my dad because my mom didn't want me to leave and didn't like my dad. And so I felt this guilt that, oh, I had to leave my mom to go to my dad's house instead of just being excited to go see my dad.

[Heather McDonald]

I want to, I want to talk about that for a second. You know, with everything we see on social media and stuff, there's always these scenes that people capture and there's a lot of people that will show, like, you know, their breakup and that the child has to be shared between the two. And the child's young and it's time to go to the dead dad and the child is crying and clinging, or the child's clinging to the dad and has to go to the mom. And as you're watching it, you're like, what is going on? Why is this child crying so much? The other parent's house just must be horrible. This is so awful. Da, da da da. Then I saw a video of people saying, this is what my child's like when I have to. When they have to leave their grandparents who they love so much, to come back to me. And it's the same thing because they're a child. And in that case, it's fun and cute. Oh, isn't it funny that the child's clinging on to the papa not to go? And I think what people don't realize is it is a child. And it is very unnatural for a child to have to share between two parents and two homes. And they do feel the stress of, if I seem happy to go to my dad's, then my mom doesn't think I'm on her side. And I also think there's parents that want to get their kid to like a crying state when they go to the. The other parent. Do you feel like that might have been the case?

[Kenna Renee Harper]

Absolutely. I, I Think as children, and I'm learning now, being in a co parenting situation myself, I have a bonus son. It's so much children when they're young, they just don't understand, right? They. They miss their mom, they miss their dad. They don't understand why they don't live together. And it's so much responsibility on the parents to set the tone for the excitement to go see the other parent. It can be done in a very healthy way. And of course, when children are young, they might still have that kind of like, oh, well, I don't want to go. I don't want to go. But then it could. In five minutes, they're thinking about the next thing, Right? But if you have parents who are emotionally manipulative and immature and they don't have that emotional intelligence to be able to level out their children's emotions, then you're getting that coercion of, you know, kind of planting seeds like, I'm gonna really miss you, or, well, when you're at your dad's, you know, you're gonna spend all this time with your stepmom or things like that that are gonna emotionally heighten an already dysregulated child. So I definitely think that there was a.

[Heather McDonald]

In.

[Kenna Renee Harper]

In my case, at least, what age

[Heather McDonald]

did you kind of realize that, you know, your dad's not a bad guy, it's fine over there, and maybe your mom is, like, feeding you some of this anxiety.

[Kenna Renee Harper]

I didn't realize a lot about my childhood until I was older, and there are some things, you know, my dad was struggling with addiction as well, so I do believe that there was.

[Heather McDonald]

What kind of addiction?

[Kenna Renee Harper]

He was addicted to opioids or opioids. So, you know, he had some. Some alcoholism in the early years, and then it shifted to that. And that was, I'm sure, very hard for my mom to see and to release that control of me and not know what was going on in that house. However, I think now I'm starting to see there's just really two sides to both of their stories, both of their perspectives. And I think both of them being addicts and having a lot of emotional immaturity, it just really built this fire that kind of fed off of one another.

[Heather McDonald]

And what was your mom's addiction?

[Kenna Renee Harper]

Benzodiazepines.

[Heather McDonald]

What are those again?

[Kenna Renee Harper]

It's like Lorazepam, Trazodone, Xanax. Okay, so used to treat anxiety, right? Yeah.

[Heather McDonald]

So go ahead.

[Kenna Renee Harper]

Oh, I was just gonna say that back then, also, it really wasn't regulated. She would be able to go and kind of pill shop because she could go under, you know, her previous last name or double last name. And it wasn't flagged in any system. Like, why is this person getting a prescription for lorazepam and hydrocodone and trazodone and, you know, all of these different things. So she had multiple pills hidden throughout our whole house in different baskets. And these different doctors didn't realize it.

[Heather McDonald]

Now I. In looking at your stuff, you know, your mom is classically beautiful. You're. You're very pretty too. So I'm sure when you said you felt like an extension of her. I always think it's annoying when moms are like, it's my mini me. It's my. She's my mini me. And I'm. I think it's all cute. It's cute, you know, matching outfits and all that stuff. But I do kind of feel it is a little dangerous territory to get into that because I think it's a lot of pressure on the daughter to be a certain way. And if they have a very attractive mom and, you know, later on maybe, let's say they struggle with their weight or go through, you know, an ugly phase like we all do, I think that can be, like, challenging kind of too, and why you shouldn't really do that with you guys. So was.

[Kenna Renee Harper]

Did she.

[Heather McDonald]

What was your socioeconomic home life like? Did she have a job?

[Kenna Renee Harper]

She always had jobs, but for short amount of times when we lived in Portland, I must have been seven or eight at the time. I think she had just. She was just getting pregnant with my sister, and we have about a 7, 8 year age gap. And she was the director of a Kindercare. I don't know if you've ever heard of Kindercare learning centers, but she was the director of it. So she's basically the principal of this learning center. She. I don't even know if she graduated high school. I'm pretty sure she didn't. So she always was very captivating. She was very. She was very outgoing. She was, you know, you would never know that she was struggling with anything. And I think that that kind of worked her way into getting these jobs, getting these positions. She didn't ever have a problem getting a job. It was just keeping a job because of her habits and her routines. And she'd get on this high of, oh, I'm gonna get a job, I'm gonna go back to school, I'm gonna do all of these things, get us excited as kids, get us really Proud of her. And then we'd have these long stints of her not even getting out of bed.

[Heather McDonald]

So you said when she. Before she had you, you had an older sibling.

[Kenna Renee Harper]

Mm.

[Heather McDonald]

So where was that sibling as you were getting raised?

[Kenna Renee Harper]

Yeah. So he and I, we all on my mom's side, share a different dad. So my brother has a different dad than I do. I have a different dad, and then my younger sister does. So they had a different custody schedule than I had. So I was in the house more. But he was primarily with my mom as well. So he was with us for how

[Heather McDonald]

much older he is.

[Kenna Renee Harper]

Seven and a half years older than me.

[Heather McDonald]

Oh, that's significant.

[Kenna Renee Harper]

Yes. And then my sister is about seven and a half years younger than me, so then they have about a 15 year age gap.

[Heather McDonald]

And were you expected to help with your little sister, like, in watching her and stuff?

[Kenna Renee Harper]

Absolutely. I would say that there was definitely a shift after my mom had my sister of her mental health. Her. That's when I started to notice the using of the medicine is what I would call it, because I just thought. And there was this narrative that she was sick and she needed medicine to help her feel better. And so I didn't realize this was active addiction. I just thought, something's wrong with my mom. We need to figure this out. But that happened right around when my sister was born. And then it became me being responsible for my sister and my brother being responsible for me. So there was not a lot of parent, like, parental supervision around the house. It was a lot of my brother's responsibility to take me to school. Cause at that point, he had a driver's license. And if he didn't. A lot of the time I didn't make it to school. I was marked truant. And I was actually facing, like, detention in elementary school for being late to school or not being picked up or not even getting there at all, which wasn't my responsibility. But that was kind of the environment that I was in. And then if I wasn't changing my sister's diapers, getting her food, making her dinners, making sure that she was okay, putting her down for a nap, then those things weren't getting done.

[Heather McDonald]

So you're like this little kid, like, I know it's crazy how that is. Like, we would never expect our kid to do it. But then you realize you were the kid doing all that. Where was the dad of your sister in all of this?

[Kenna Renee Harper]

Yeah, so he lived in our. The town that I was living in, Port Angeles at the time. But they Had a lot of custody issues as well. And I don't remember exactly what the split was, but I do remember he was trying to get more visitation, but primarily, my mom would always get the primary custody of the children. And I think by any means, she would take these men to court to try to get that.

[Heather McDonald]

So when she met this guy and then found herself pregnant, they didn't marry.

[Kenna Renee Harper]

They were married, actually. This was like an old boyfriend from, like, high school or something. So they had known each other for a really long time, and they did get pregnant, but then they got married shortly thereafter, and they were only married, I think, the first year.

[Heather McDonald]

And did you like him? Were you excited? Was she like, this is your new dad, and this is gonna be great?

[Kenna Renee Harper]

There was a lot of that talk. I remember I would call him Princey. She wanted me to call him Princey. And I think that that was mostly to get under my dad's skin. There was a lot of, oh, you should go by his last name, so you and your sister have the last name. So then I would go to my dad and say, you know, I want to be this. You know, this name instead of this last name, because then I can be it with my sister. Now, looking at that, that's horrible. Going to. Having your child go to their dad and want to take some other man's last name, Especially in such a short amount of time. It's not like this man had been in my life. Or.

[Heather McDonald]

Did your. Did your brother like him?

[Kenna Renee Harper]

Think they got along fine? I think that. I think it was just, you know, now that I'm. I don't know. I guess I've never been asked that question. I. I don't know if my brother. I think they got along. I think we all got along with him now. I get along with him great. Back then, I think there was also that ownership over my. Or that feeling of betrayal over my dad if I really liked him too much. And so it was this loyalty to both my dad and my mom with these other partners. And really, back then, hoping that they would get back together, because there was that talk always lingering in the back, which was very unhealthy with your stepdad.

[Heather McDonald]

So your sister's dad.

[Kenna Renee Harper]

Yeah. So my mom. And my. My mom always gave me this hope that her and my dad would get back together.

[Heather McDonald]

Oh, I see.

[Kenna Renee Harper]

No matter if she was with somebody else or he was with somebody else, no matter if she was married or dating, no matter if my dad was married, she always kind of planted these seeds that one day they would get back together, and we could all live together again.

[Heather McDonald]

So now let's go to the. The day that changed your life forever. Why don't you kind of walk us through what happened?

[Kenna Renee Harper]

Yeah. So it was Christmas Day of 2006, and I was at my dad's house. It was his. His year to have me for Christmas, but I was actually flying back to the Seattle area that day to be with my mom. And then the next day, we were going to spend Christmas with my other. With my mom's side of the family. And so I opened up presents. I called my mom. I was so excited because I had been gifted a trip to Disneyland from my dad. So I just couldn't wait to tell her. And when we got on the phone, she was not as enthusiastic as I had hoped. Kind of threw me off. But I. At that point, I was very used to gauging emotions and shifting based on whatever my mom's emotions. So if I was super, super excited. But then she wasn't. I downplayed everything so I could tell on the ph she was not happy about this. She's like, well, we'll talk about if you can go. So instantly I was shut down. I'm like, okay, well. Well, I'm really excited to see you. And that was kind of the end of that conversation on the phone. And then I was on a plane. When I flew into Seattle, we lived two and a half hours away, so we still had quite a bit of a drive back home. And it started getting dark. And what often would happen on those change days is my mom would gauge what happened at my dad's, so she would kind of pry for information. What, you know, what did your stepmom say? What did you do? How did you feel about that? Did you miss me? So she's kind of. I don't know if it's kind of like a rage baiting or something, like she's trying to figure out what happened in that house and what my emotional tone was and if I was happy or sad. And I started to develop a toothache. And so I told her, you know, I'm really not feeling good. I'm, you know, I just want to lay down. I just want to go to bed. She's like, well, we'll get you medicine when you get home. So we get home, and all I remember then is I was so excited to put on these pajamas, these cheetah pajamas my dad got me. And so I take my suitcase in, I put on my pajamas. I'm like, dancing around. She's like, okay, go. Go get in bed immediately.

[Heather McDonald]

And at this point, you're how old?

[Kenna Renee Harper]

I am 10 years old.

[Heather McDonald]

Okay.

[Kenna Renee Harper]

Yes. So. And I'm still co. Sleeping with my mom. So she. When she says, go get in bed, it's our bed. So I get in our bed, and she's like, I'm just gonna take a quick bath and then I'll be right in. I'm like, okay. So I turn on Nanny McPhee and I start watching it, and I'm getting really tired. It'd been such a long day for me. You know, you get up at 4am on Christmas, and by this time, it's probably 9, she's in the bath, and I actually heard her on the phone with someone. And so I come out of the room, I'm like, are you coming to bed? You know, And I'm always feeling responsible for her, so I always feel like I have to check in on her, remind her, let's go to bed. You know, those kinds of things. So I'm like, come on, mom, let's go to bed. And she's like, go back in the room. She was very stern, like, okay. So I go back in the bed, start to kind of fall asleep again. And I noticed she's not next to me, and I. I don't want to fall asleep without her with me. So I go back out, and now she's on the computer and she's typing something up, and I'm like, why is she not in bed? So I'm like, can you please come to bed? She's like, mckenna, you need to get into bed right now. And off in the distance, I did see a couple of cups on our kitchen counter. And I thought that that was kind of strange. Cause I'm like, what is she doing? And then she had. She had mentioned that she was gonna give me the medicine for my throat. And I'm like, oh, I'm feeling fine now. Like, I just wanted to let you know I'm feeling fine. I don't need medicine.

[Heather McDonald]

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[Kenna Renee Harper]

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[Heather McDonald]

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[Kenna Renee Harper]

Terms and conditions apply at this point too. I don't trust doctors. I don't trust medicine because she's given this narrative that she's sick and the doctors can't find out what's wrong with her and that's why she has to take all this medicine. So I'm really avert to like even having medicine at all. So I'm trying to.

[Heather McDonald]

One question. Where's your sister and your brother? This. At this night?

[Kenna Renee Harper]

This. They're both at their dad's house.

[Heather McDonald]

Okay, so it's just the two of you? Okay, continue.

[Kenna Renee Harper]

The two of us. So anyway, I go back into bed and I fall asleep and the next thing that I know is she's, you know, shaking me and waking me up to take this medicine. And I've always been hard headed and so I'm like, I don't want to take it, I don't want to take it. And it started this kind of fight almost of me trying to push back and say that I didn't need it anymore, that my tooth didn't hurt anymore. And she was very forceful. It's like, McKenna, you are going to take this medicine.

[Heather McDonald]

Was it a pill or liquid? What was it?

[Kenna Renee Harper]

So I looked down in the cup, it was just a kitchen glass and it was filled with what I thought was water or something. But then I saw something floating in it. I saw little things floating in it, which I thought at the time was just Alka Seltzer. Plus if you. She had that for like cold and flu. And so when it dissolves, it breaks up these pills. So that's what I thought at the time. Little did I know there was 50 to 100 prescription pain pills and benzodiazepines crushed up in that concoction. And I had no idea. I took one sip and I instantly. The taste was absolutely horrible. I remember instantly gagging. It was like that, that powder film that pills have times like a thousand. It was so disgusting. I started, you know, instantly crying. I'm like, I don't want to take this. I don't want to take this. So then she's, she suggested that we add some Capri sun into it to make it better. But she said I wasn't allowed to go to bed until I drank the entire thing. So she went and got some Capri sun, she poured it in there, which made it taste a little bit better and had me drink the entire thing. And to be honest, towards the end of drinking it, I was already feeling extremely, extremely lethargic. I don't even really remember anything except for like putting my head on the pillow and her saying good job. And then the next thing that I remember was waking up in the Seattle Children's Hospital.

[Heather McDonald]

Okay, so now tell us what really was going On.

[Kenna Renee Harper]

Yeah. So she had, when she was writing on the computer, she was typing a last will and testament, which was where to spread our ashes, what to do after. And she claims that she was trying to take both of our lives. So this printout that she typed up and she put all over the house was supposed to be what to do after we were both found. However, like I said, I took 50 to 100 of those pills as a 10 year old, which a lot of medical professionals have chimed in and said, that is absolutely insane that you even woke up from this at all. I don't know how much she took. She did say that she took medicine, however, she had built up a tolerance. Addicts can take a lot more medication than we even realize. And not to mention, she was older than me. She was. She weighed more than me. She said she took the medicine as well, but she didn't take it until much later. So investigators say that I took it at 10 and she called 911 at 2am Yes, 2am Yep. I took it at 10pm she took it at 2. Or she. Yeah, she called at 2am and she called 91 1. Which. This is kind of, this is kind of the part of the story that doesn't make sense to me even. And I know that people listening, they have so many questions on, like, okay, well, if she was trying to kill you, why did she call 91 1? And there's only theories, right? We can only theorize why that might be when. What we do know is that when the EMS showed up after she called 91 1, which, on the 911 call, she said, my daughter does not know she took these. I gave my daughter these. She doesn't know. She just got back from her D and I just snapped. That's the exact words on the 911 call, which I just, I, I listened to.

[Heather McDonald]

And when she's talking, since you just listened to it, is she crying? Is she hysterical? Is she saying, I can't believe I did this, or is she calm?

[Kenna Renee Harper]

She's very calm. You can tell that she's high. You can tell she's taken something. She's. She's saying that she can't move. She's saying she checked my breathing urge. I checked her breathing, but I can't move. I can't move. What's weird about the scene itself is that I was on the outside of the bed when I. When she gave me the medicine and I fell asleep. Now when they find us, when EMS arrives to the scene, she's on the inside of the bed towards the wall. So she would have had to climb over my basically lifeless body and stage herself there. And then she said what she claims is, well, God must have, you know, put the phone right on my chest. Because I came to and I. And I called 911 to save my daughter. That's her whole story, is that she saved her daughter when she's the one who gave me these things to begin with. So when the EMS got there, they're checking my vitals, I'm hardly breathing. They're having to take me out on a stretcher. Some of the crime scene photos, you can tell one of my arms is completely red. I was losing blood flow. She walked out of the house, so she couldn't have possibly taken as much as I did, but. Or maybe she just had built up this tolerance and she was able to walk out unassisted to the.

[Heather McDonald]

So when she gets to the hospital, do the. Are the police immediately keeping her in custody and asking her questions? CPS is called. What's that scene like?

[Kenna Renee Harper]

I actually, I don't know. I've only heard that when she got to the hospital, she was asking for a warm blanket, she was asking people to tend to her, to get her water, things like that. And she didn't ask about me at all. I don't, I don't know if the cops got there immediately. I do know that the 911 call was basically her confession. So there was never an interrogation room where she had to go in and they had to hound her for information because what they did know is that she gave me these pills without me knowing anything. So she kind of admitted there what she had done. I was being lifelighted because the small town that I lived in, they didn't have the capacity to care for me. So I had to be lifelighted. From Port Angeles to the Seattle Children's Hospital where I was given what I was told was three Narcan reversals get me to come to. I was in a coma for a couple of days and then I finally woke up. So it just kind of sets the scene. She walked out of the house, she was fine. She was asking for a blanket, she was asking for a lamp. She. She was asking all these things and here I am. She's not asking about her daughter. I'm being life flighted. They don't even know if I'm gonna make it.

[Heather McDonald]

So when you do come to after a few days and you're in this hospital bed, what do you recall thinking first?

[Kenna Renee Harper]

Well, I woke up and I'm in this huge room, and my dad's holding my hand. And I just. I looked at him and he just starts sobbing, and he's just like, mckenna, I'm here. I'm here. I was so confused. I was so confused. I had just gone to bed in my mom's room. I had left my dad's house. Now my dad's here. I don't know where I am. And I'm looking down at my arms. I have all these IVs in me. I can't hardly move. And nobody will tell me what's wrong. Like, what happened. I'm. My first concern is, where's my mom? We're supposed to have Christmas with my sister and my brother today. I'm 10 years old. Like, my main concern is, you know, just opening my presents with my siblings. And there's cops guarding the door. My dad's right here. He can't stay. They don't let him stay by my side for very long. And I have. I'm constantly asking the nurses questions, why can't I go with my dad? Why am I in here? How long do I have to be in here? And they're just giving me coloring books and saying, like, you just have to wait to find out. You just, you know, we can't tell you anything. We just want to get you better.

[Heather McDonald]

So what was the reaction of you said you were going to go spend time with her family? Were her parents involved? Grandparents? What was their reaction to their daughter doing this to their granddaughter?

[Kenna Renee Harper]

I honestly, my whole mom's side of the family was in complete shock. Like I said, my mom was my best friend for many years, and she really poured a lot into us kids. And so I think that everyone knew she was unwell in the years leading up. They just didn't know the magnitude. They didn't know what was going on inside the house. They just knew something was off. But they would have never guessed that she would do something of this magnitude, especially to me. Like I said earlier, there was this almost obsession with me, and I was the first daughter. I was supposed to be a boy until I was born. And then they were like, no, it's a girl. And she was just over the moon. And so I think everybody was just in disbelief and that there had to be some explanation for this. I don't think that they were taking it at face value. I don't know exactly what they were told immediately after. They just knew. She was in the county jail. I was in the Seattle Children's Hospital. And then There was a lot of unknown, there was a lot of assumptions. They just didn't know.

[Heather McDonald]

So you said that she did write her last will and testament and print. Actually printed out copies and put it throughout the house. What did that say?

[Kenna Renee Harper]

Yeah, I actually just read that for the first time in the past couple of years. It was where our ashes were to be spread when they found us.

[Heather McDonald]

Which was what?

[Kenna Renee Harper]

Along the spit in Port Angeles. It's just this long piece of land where the ocean is. And there was, you know, what to do with the tax return that she's gonna get, where to put money for my brother and my sister. And then there was lines for each person that she wanted to address. So she addressed my mother or my grandmother, who was her mother, who she always had a very up and down relationship with. And she blames a lot of, I don't know, her life and her turmoil on. But my grandmother is one of the most giving people and they did have a tough upbringing. My grandmother had six kids, she was very poor. They didn't have a lot. She, at her, in their early years had an alcohol problem, but since then stopped drinking, hasn't, you know, I think there was just a lot of resentment. So she was basically blaming it on my grandmother, blaming it on my father. So there was a part addressed to him about how much he hated me or she hated him and she was going to save me from him. And then just addressing both my siblings

[Heather McDonald]

and their dads positively or negatively?

[Kenna Renee Harper]

Positively to them, like to the kids, take care of my kids and let them know that I love them.

[Heather McDonald]

So what was your teenage brother's reaction to all this when he found out?

[Kenna Renee Harper]

He was distraught, actually. When I was, I was, I left the hospital. They found nothing was wrong with me, which was an absolute miracle medically. And I was placed into foster care immediately and I wasn't able to see anyone. They were pretty much keeping me isolated from my whole family while they figured out where I was gonna go and what was gonna happen and what really happened and what was that like?

[Heather McDonald]

So you went to like a whole, like different family, Like a foster care family?

[Kenna Renee Harper]

Yes. Yeah. That was an absolute culture shock. They were a different ethnicity, they had birds flying everywhere, they ate really spicy food. And just for me at the time, like I just wanted my family and to integrated into a home where their generosity was amazing. But for a 10 year old girl who had just wanted her parents and just wanted her family and it was traumatizing. I didn't, I don't think I ate. I don't think I slept. They didn't have tv. I was so used to being able to just turn on the TV and just do my own thing. It was a completely different lifestyle. I think that I just sat and cried for a couple of days. That was.

[Heather McDonald]

How long were you with this family? For the foster family, it was only

[Kenna Renee Harper]

a couple of days while they figured out where I was gonna go. But my caseworker did let me go and see my brother. My brother's 18th birthday was this year, and it was on the 1st, January 1st, so just days after the event. So they were having this big party at his dad's house, and they didn't let me see any other family members, but they did let me see my brother on his birthday, and that's the one. My brother was, like, my protector. And so he was not an emotional guy still to this day. Not an emotional guy. Very. Just. Very serious. Very. Just get stuff done. And I walked in, into that. Into his house, into his dad's house, and he just held me and sobbed. And I can only imagine for him, like, the guilt that he probably felt that he wasn't there to protect me because only us knew what was happening in that house. So I'm sure that that guilt and those feelings were just overwhelming for him. That was the first time, like I said, that I'd ever seen my brother cry. And he held me in his arms and he was just like, I'm so sorry that I wasn't there, McKenna. I'm so sorry. That's. That's like. I will. I'll never forget that moment.

[Heather McDonald]

So you kind of. So they're figuring this all out.

[Kenna Renee Harper]

She's.

[Heather McDonald]

She is not being let out, or she does get let out from jail at that point.

[Kenna Renee Harper]

Not at that point, no. She was. I think bail was set extremely high, and so they weren't. She wasn't getting out at the time.

[Heather McDonald]

And what about school? Like, once the Christmas holiday is over, are you expected to go back to school where everybody knows that your mom tried to kill you?

[Kenna Renee Harper]

So at this point, my uncle on my dad's side, my dad's brother is a lawyer, so they're. They're going through while I'm in the foster family and they're trying to figure out everything. He fighting for custody for my dad on my dad's behalf. So my dad's trying to get sole custody of me, and he's actually granted that. So my stepmom mom and him had flown in and had. Were there during this, and I'm not Sure. Exactly what was going on in the courtroom, but they were given custody of me. However, I didn't go and live with my dad at the time. So they kind of painted this picture to the courts that they were this one big happy family. I was gonna go live with my dad and my stepmom and my step siblings and my other siblings, but they weren't even living together at the time. My dad was living in an apartment. He was struggling with his addiction. I don't know if my brothers on my dad's side were living with him. And so I ended up going and living with my aunt and uncle on my dad's side in Idaho. So what ended up happening is I found the.

[Heather McDonald]

Not the uncle that. The uncle who's the attorney or someone else.

[Kenna Renee Harper]

Yep.

[Heather McDonald]

Okay. And did you get along with them?

[Kenna Renee Harper]

Yes. They were amazing. Honestly, it was. It was a different kind of chaos. They had triplet girls and then two other kids, so it was. It was quite a shift. But we had amazing opportunities in that household. I. I got to cheer. I got to do all of these different things that I definitely wouldn't have been able to otherwise. So being able to go into that home was such a blessing. And I got to hang out with my cousins who were my best friends. I had a cousin who's six months older than me, and we're both girls, and so we just, you know, had the best of time. But what was hard about that is you have my mom's side of the family that's fighting for me to stay, because that's all I've ever known. I've only ever known this primary family. And my dad's family was always just a. Every other holiday and two weeks in the summer. And so that was. That was gonna be a complete culture shock for me as well, to live in a whole different state, a whole new school district, everything. So my mom's side of the family is over here advocating for me to stay in Port Angeles. Even though they were on my mom's side, they would have had that distance because my mom was the perpetrator, and they were on her side of the family. It was obviously granted that my dad would get custody, even though he wasn't gonna be the one providing. And the courts didn't know that at the time. The courts had no idea that I wasn't gonna be living with my dad. It was kind of this facade that they put on so that. So then I had to have this one final breakfast, basically, at this hotel where I had the transition from foster care into the care of my dad's side of the family. And I got to say goodbye to my brother, to my grandma, to my, I believe my aunts and uncles were there. And then I was on a flight to Idaho and I never got to say bye to the house I was in. I never got to pack up my stuff. I never got to say goodbye to any of my friends. I left for Christmas break thinking I'm going to see all my best friends when I get back, you know, see after the break, I never got to say goodbye to any of them. There was no closure.

[Heather McDonald]

What happened to your little sister and how old was she at this time?

[Kenna Renee Harper]

She was about to be three at the end of January, and her dad got sole physical custody of her.

[Heather McDonald]

And did you, were you able to keep in touch with her throughout those years?

[Kenna Renee Harper]

Very minimal. I don't remember for the first couple of years, I don't remember talking to my mom's side of the family, hardly at all. Maybe a phone call to my uncle here and there or my grandmother, but other than that, I don't remember talking to my sister.

[Heather McDonald]

So what happens with the criminal case for your mom and her? Did she have a trial? Did she plea? Walk us through that.

[Kenna Renee Harper]

Yeah. So from there on out, she, I think at some point did post bail and then she was on house arrest. A lot of people are shocked to find out that it takes at least two years for a trial to happen. So in that two years, she was living a pretty normal life. She was just out and about. She was able to go to church. She was able to go to the grocery store. She was able to just live her life. So it was probably a good thing that I wasn't living in that town. That would have been extremely hard. But then.

[Heather McDonald]

And she. She is told not to have contact with you. Did she try to contact you?

[Kenna Renee Harper]

No, not that I know know of. I think that she was told that she was not able to have contact with me or anyone under the age of 18 without a parental consent.

[Heather McDonald]

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[Kenna Renee Harper]

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[Heather McDonald]

Hmm. What happens? Did you go?

[Kenna Renee Harper]

Yes. Yeah. So at that point, I am living with my dad again. He has a year of sobriety. So he had gotten divorced and remarried to his fourth wife, or. Yeah, remarried to. Now his fourth wife. And we all live together. It's like this one big, happy, dysfunctional family. And I. It was the one year that I had, you know, my dad back, is what I say. And so then we're prepping to. Yeah, I think it was the middle of my sixth grade year. I'm prepping to have to go fly, Go to Port Angeles and testify against my mom. And at this point, I hadn't seen my family yet. I don't remember seeing my mom's side of the family. So also, it was the first time I was going to see them as well. So it was this big kind of anticipating event. And when I got there, I didn't have to sit in on the trial or anything like that. I was given an advocate, so she was able to walk with me through that entire process and kind of prep me on what was going to happen when I walked into the courtroom, what it was going to look like, and, you know, what the defense was kind of going to say, what the prosecution was going to say, and kind of come up with a plan of who's my safe person and what am I gonna do when I feel really overwhelmed? Cause at this point, I'm. I'm 12. So in those two years that followed, I started to realize what had happened. Initially, I just was advocating for my mom. I told the investigators this was probably just some bad medicine. You guys have got it all wrong. Where's my mom? I wanna see her. It shifted from that to actually starting to realize my mom had tried to kill me, and this was a very unsafe person. And I still had conflicting feelings of that. I'm still 12, you know.

[Heather McDonald]

Were you in therapy or anything during those two years?

[Kenna Renee Harper]

Initially, right When I moved to Idaho, they had me in a children's therapy. I don't know, they. They sent me to their children's therapy. It was like a play therapy. So I would just sit and like play pool or color and have therapy. I think it was once a week, but that lasted maybe a couple weeks. I don't remember going for very long at all. I remember the woman saying, no, I think she has a really good grasp that this is a really good grasp that her mom. It was her, her mom's inability to make decisions, basically that her mom wasn't trying to hurt her. But now I look back, I'm like, no, my mom was trying to hurt me. So that was, that was strange in and of itself. I should have gone to therapy for way longer, and I did later down the road. But I did come to this, this realization this person is unsafe and she had a real problem. And I also started to have a grasp on addiction because of my dad. I started to have a grasp on what that looked like and that that was what she was battling. And that's why our house was operating the way that it was. And so going into that courtroom, it wasn't just I got to see my mom again. It was, I was facing the person who tried to murder me and my perpetrator. So.

[Heather McDonald]

So now you're 12, which is such a hard age. You haven't seen your mom in two years. Was there something in your head? Like, I want to look really pretty. I want to make sure that she would approve my outfit. Like, what were the thoughts of what? How you're gonna do your hair and what you're gonna choose to wear that day.

[Kenna Renee Harper]

Hmm. I don't even remember that at all. I don't. Good.

[Heather McDonald]

I'm glad that wasn't your thought. I'm glad that wasn't something you were thinking about. I was just thinking if I hadn't seen my parent, you know, for two years or any kind of court situation, I've been to court, you know, and those are things where it's very nerve wracking. It's scary. I can't imagine doing it at 12 and your circumstances, the worst kind. So good. I'm glad you weren't thinking about that or have a memory. So you show up and it's like, you mean you like walk through the court, go around and she's like standing there looking at you and is she like smiling or what is she doing?

[Kenna Renee Harper]

Yeah. So I think that was just what I was walking into is just. It had shifted from this compassion towards my mom to this fear. So I started to have this underlying fear of her. So what they do is they. I entered through this back door. So as soon as you enter, you're just facing the courtroom. So you're facing everyone in the audience.

[Heather McDonald]

You're facing, you know, and there's a jury and everything.

[Kenna Renee Harper]

Yep. There's. The full jury is to my left. I have the judge to my left. I have the defense, the defense attorney to my left, and my mom right there. And then I have the prosecution to my right. And so everyone on the right side of the courtroom is, you know, kind of like my side, her side type of situation. And all I thought was that I just didn't want to see her. Like, I didn't want to look at her. And the court recorder was actually in just the right place right here to where, when I was looking down, she was actually covering my mom's. She was in the line of sight of my mom's face. So if I just stood still, I couldn't see my mom. But my mom was going like this so that she could see me, so that she could try to get eye contact. I think she was. I think she had this idea that she was going to, you know, that I was gonna somehow need her or want her or want to look at her, want to have this secret communication. And that was not how I walked into the courtroom.

[Heather McDonald]

So the prosecutor is the first person to ask you questions, correct?

[Kenna Renee Harper]

Yes.

[Heather McDonald]

And what kind of stuff was he asking you?

[Kenna Renee Harper]

Honestly, I don't remember exactly. I think they were just trying to build me as a credible witness. You know, I was the only person there. They wanted to make sure that I wasn't, in the past two years, that I wasn't changing my story based on my dad's side of the family. So they were just trying to really just check my memory and make sure that I was a credible witness and that I was, you know, intelligent and able to communicate properly. So they were just asking me very simple questions and trying to paint a picture of what had happened that night.

[Heather McDonald]

And were there any times where you were fumbling or got scared? Like, was the defense ever trying to flub you up?

[Kenna Renee Harper]

The defense. For a long time, I hated defense attorneys because of my experience. He tried to paint me as an uncredible witness. He tried to trip me up a lot. He tried to say questions that kind of had multiple meanings. So one that I remember in particular was, does your mom care for you, McKenna? And I'm sitting there, and I'VE always been more mature. Just I was very parentified. I loved school. I poured all my energy into school. Cuz that's the only thing I could control and that I had. So when he asked me that, I just stopped and I looked at him and I'm, you know, outspoken. I'm like, well, care for me how? Because she do. I think she cared about me. Yes. But did she have the ability to care for me? No. She was not making me meals. She was not caring for us children the way that she should have been. And I was able to speak up in that way. So there was these questions and then I remember he was tripped up on what movie I said I was watching. And he actually had the entire jury leave the courtroom because they wanted to replay my initial forensic child interview. Because at this point I was saying, oh, I was watching the Devil Wears Prada. That's what I had remembered. But initially it was Nanny McPhee. So there was, I mean it had to have been 20 minutes that he was fixated on whether I was watching Nanny McPhee or the Devil Wears Prada. Had the jury leave, had me replay this and he's like, well, do you remember that? Well, why did it change? Why did it change? And I'm like, I'm so sorry, sir. You know, I don't know why it changed or what that memory is every other memory that I have. You know, I was really sticking up for myself. I'm actually really proud of my 12 year old self because I was, I was probably a little sassy in the room. I should get the, the court transcript.

[Heather McDonald]

Couple questions. First of all, were her, was her parents and she paying for this defense or was this a public defender?

[Kenna Renee Harper]

I think it was a public defender. My mom. So my mom's mom, my grandmother was not speaking to her and has not spoken to her since she was initially booked in jail. They had two or three phone calls initially when she was in there. And then my grandmother cut off all communication with her. Her father, which they were divorced, lots of blended families. Her father was, was definitely a supporter but didn't have the money to do it. He was, he was definitely more. He was living in a trailer park. So he, he didn't have that ability. So I believe it was a public defender.

[Heather McDonald]

So what was the basis of the defense that they were trying to establish so that she would get off?

[Kenna Renee Harper]

I think it shifted. So they were trying at one point to, for the insanity defense that she was mentally not there right that time

[Heather McDonald]

or that she's mentally not there now, like a temporary insanity thing, like she snapped.

[Kenna Renee Harper]

You know, I actually don't know the answer to that. I would have to look back and I'm actually going back in the court. All those court records, it's. It was one of the largest cases in that town. And so trying to get all of the documentation now for what it is, because also I want to make sure I get all the facts. Like I don't want just, you know, my dad's side or my mom's side of the family's perspective. And so me opening up this case is me wanting to look at things for the fact. So I don't know that. I just know it was insanity plea. They had basically her different diagnoses that she had been diagnosed with borderline personality disorder, bipolar disorder, extreme anxiety disorder, those types of things so that they could build this case that she basically went manic and had a drug induced psychotic break. However, that didn't hold up in court because she had done multiple things that showed premeditation. So her writing that last will and testament, she didn't just snap. If someone just snaps, they're just making a split second decision. Right. Everything that she had to do that night was over the course of hours and hours and hours. And it was very methodical, even to her, you know, writing everything, putting the pills in the drink. It wasn't like she just took a gun and shot someone, you know, so that was definitely something that went against her in court. And yeah, couple things.

[Heather McDonald]

When you first started the story, I did wonder, I wonder if she was postpartum. Was that playing a role? But once you said your sister was already like two, I would think, listen, I'm not a postpartum expert, but I think it's not when your child is two. So I just wondered if that. If they played that card at all.

[Kenna Renee Harper]

No, not that I know of. But for a long time I had that question too. And now being a mom and having I'm, I'm nine months postpartum right now, I didn't struggle with postpartum depression, and I know that's a very, very real thing for people. However, if she was about three years out, I don't see that, that happening. Do I think it's plausible that her postpartum depression initially maybe caused her to start her addiction? Yes. Do I think that underlying mental health issues aided in when you have like a dual diagnosis and then you're also actively using? That's obviously causing a lot of poor judgment. But there's a lot of People who have these diagnoses that don't try to kill their daughter. So.

[Heather McDonald]

And how now, in retrospect and everything, how long do you think she was planning this? Do you think it came into her head while you were visiting your dad over Christmas while she drove to the airport to get you, or do you think it's when you guys got home and she was in the bathtub and she was like. Or around then, just a couple hours prior? What is your just personal opinion?

[Kenna Renee Harper]

I think the Disneyland trip was about to send her over the edge. I think she hated that my dad's side of the family had money. I think she hated my dad and the situation that they had. I think that she. She was struggling herself in her own. She had a relationship with someone at the time, and that wasn't going well. I just think that it was a culmination of all these things. And that entire day, I think that she had this planned out.

[Heather McDonald]

So she had taken some medication to put. To do herself in as well. What do you. What does the prosecutor think happened that made her go, I don't want to die, and I don't want to be my daughter die and have me like, either we both have to die or we both can't die, because otherwise I really will be convicted for murder? What do you think happened there?

[Kenna Renee Harper]

Gosh. That is a question I have asked myself over and over and over again. And I think my theories have shifted as the more education that I have on the case and the days leading up and the more interviews from different people that I hear. Honestly, I think that my mom suffers from severe narcissistic personality disorder. And I think that she loves herself more than she is able to love anybody else. And I think that she wanted that control from this tumultuous relationship that she had with my dad. I was this extension of her almost. She had this jealousy of me that I got to have my dad and she didn't. I think there was just this. This toxic cycle surrounding me, and she wanted me gone. And I think that the way in which she did it, it was almost posing as this savior complex. I don't know if she ever really thought I was going to die or she knew how close I was to that. I don't think. I think it scared her how close I was to death. And she didn't want to be convicted of murder because she knew she didn't take enough of this medication. She knew that she wasn't going to die. And so the only option was to call and to Reframe it. Like, I saved my daughter.

[Heather McDonald]

Wow. Yeah, I mean, you know, we just did an episode of Juicy Crimes on the Netflix doc Crash. Are you familiar with the story?

[Kenna Renee Harper]

I have been going on a deep dive. I just watched the Netflix and the two Hulu episodes.

[Heather McDonald]

I believe she, you know, was narcissistic, sick in the head, too young to be in this relationship, doing drugs. And when she sped. She wanted that car. I don't believe it was an accident to crash and didn't care if she lived or died. Definitely thought she was going to probably die. And then when she woke up, realized, I want to live, and I don't want to live and be in prison. So I'm going to, you know, say, I don't remember. Or maybe she really didn't remember. Maybe it's come about. Who knows at the time? But I do think people attempt suicide, and when that doesn't work out, whether it's jumping off a bridge and they actually live, when they've interviewed those people, they said as they were going. Going down, they changed their mind and was like, I want to live. So in waking up from essentially a drug overdose, that wasn't enough. Then she. Yeah. Changed the narrative to be like, oh, my God. So was her story that she meant. She didn't mean to give you this much? Like, what was her story then?

[Kenna Renee Harper]

No, the story always was that we were supposed to both be dead.

[Heather McDonald]

Okay.

[Kenna Renee Harper]

So she stuck with that. We were. She probably. Till the day she dies. She will say that she was trying to kill herself and me. There's no explanation for why she took it later, why she didn't take as much as me. There's no explanation for that. But she will. She will say that we were both supposed to be gone. And she has sent me emails even when she was in prison. We should both. Both be dead right now.

[Heather McDonald]

But I'm glad you're not. Or how does she. What do they say?

[Kenna Renee Harper]

No, there was. There was multiple that were. You know, we should both. The reality is that we should both be gone right now. And, you know, thank God that I saved you. Thank God that we're not. It's. It's this savior. It's. It's really interesting because I hear about this savior complex that moms want to have, and I think kind of like

[Heather McDonald]

a Munchausens by proxy, too.

[Kenna Renee Harper]

Yes. Something along that lines of like, I saved. I saved you. I'm your savior. But she's not compartmentalizing that. Like, she also was the one who was trying to murder Me too. So it's. It's this weird, like I was doing what I could to save you from your dad or from whatever, from your grandmother, whatever she thought in her mind she was saving me from, which is really ironic because if she was trying to save me from my father because he was so abusive and all of these allegations that she had, she's the one who put me right back into his career.

[Heather McDonald]

So how. So how many days can you recall the whole trial went before they rested with their final statements?

[Kenna Renee Harper]

I was only there. I only flew in to give my testimony and then I left. I believe the trial was.

[Heather McDonald]

And do you know how long the jury deliberated?

[Kenna Renee Harper]

I don't think it was very long at all. I think they came to a conclusion very quickly.

[Heather McDonald]

And what was the conclusion?

[Kenna Renee Harper]

She was charged with attempted murder of a child.

[Heather McDonald]

Convicted, you mean convicted or convicted?

[Kenna Renee Harper]

Yes, Yep, yep, convicted. And there was also another charge in relation to neglect of a child or like child abuse, but those were to be served concurrently with each other.

[Heather McDonald]

And was there any kind of before sent. Was there like a sentencing thing where there was a victim impact statement or anything?

[Kenna Renee Harper]

Yep, yes. And I actually just did all of that remotely. So I, They. I just went to my uncle's law firm and then they had a conference call and I just read my letter to the court just over phone.

[Heather McDonald]

And what was. Can you summarize that?

[Kenna Renee Harper]

Basically I was, I was addressing the judge and saying how I had come to the realization that my mom had tried to murder me. And what I thought was this relationship with a mom that should be nurturing and caring and supportive. And I, and I share this stuff on my social media as well. I have been reading this stuff and kind of going through it with everyone together. But yeah, basically said please give my mom the max sentence. So that my sister. I was really protective of my sister. I just wanted to make sure my sister was out of high school, that she was grown enough so that she wouldn't take. Be manipulated by my mom as well or she wouldn't be forced to have to go see her in some capacity. Because it's actually really interesting how many parental rights still stay in place even when something like this happens. Even when I got emancipated at 17 years old from both of my parents. I had to get both of their signatures. I had to get my mom's and I had a no contact order for life against her.

[Heather McDonald]

I know a case very close to me like a. It was at my school where the woman was convicted of hiring someone to kill the father of her child, the child that they shared. And the guys got shot in the face and, you know, and lived. And they. The stepmom and the dad or one of them had to brick to the prison to visit the mom.

[Kenna Renee Harper]

Yeah, I. That was.

[Heather McDonald]

That was like, part of the thing. They had to do it, and if they didn't do it, I. I don't. I don't know how that can be. I don't know how you couldn't fight that. Because it's like, why, when you have full custody, you're not getting child support? Why would you ever be obligated to drive or waste a day or put your child in a place where they're sitting prisoners or. So maybe I have it wrong. Maybe they did it out of the goodness of the heart. Maybe the daughter asked to see her. I don't really know, but I just remember thinking, oh, hell, no. Like, I would be like, hell to the no. And so how much time did your mom spend behind bars?

[Kenna Renee Harper]

She. Her sentence was 12 years, and she served nine.

[Heather McDonald]

And do you know what kind of a prison it was as far as security?

[Kenna Renee Harper]

Yes. I actually had gone and visited her when I was 18. I broke the no contact order. So it wasn't maximum security. It was a women's correctional center. And there was different levels, and she was basically in the level that was really lenient. She had a job, she had education. She actually got a degree while she was in there. So it was very. I mean, I'm sure that prison can't be sunshine and rainbows. Obviously, I'm not. I'm not naive to that, but it definitely wasn't at the capacity that I think it should have been.

[Heather McDonald]

So it was kind of like a camp.

[Kenna Renee Harper]

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, they were in, like. Yeah. From. From the times, like, when I saw her, she was just with people who had committed, like, fraud and stuff like that. It wasn't like these.

[Heather McDonald]

Wow. So she wasn't with child abusers, which is who she is.

[Kenna Renee Harper]

Yeah.

[Heather McDonald]

And she wasn't targeted as a child abuser where they might really go after her.

[Kenna Renee Harper]

No. And a lot of her friends in there, she was looked at, and she had manipulated people enough to believe that she was trying to sa me. So she wasn't looked at in there as someone who was trying to harm her child. She was looking at someone. She was looked at as someone who was trying to save her child.

[Heather McDonald]

So I'm just imagining I'm her. Okay. I'm in the prison, and they're like, what are you in here for. What is her story that I. That, you know, we decided we were gonna die together. And then I woke up and I was like, what is going on? And I tried to get. Huh. Would you say, like.

[Kenna Renee Harper]

Like, I think that she. She justifies it by whatever allegations that she has against my dad, that she was heavily abused, that she experienced all this abuse in his hands and yada, yada, yada, and the only thing that she could do so that I wouldn't experience that was to take me away.

[Heather McDonald]

I bet she told the people, the prison that she thought you were being sexually abused.

[Kenna Renee Harper]

Yeah, there was. Oh, there was allegations she had against my brothers on my dad's side, against my father of multiple different types of abuse. And those things had never happened to me. Do I think my. My dad's not a saint, My dad. I have had my own issues with my dad, but I will never sit here and say, my dad never physically abused me. He never sexually abused me. Those. Those things are so far out of the wheelhouse. But that's what she wanted people to believe, and there is such a difference. Like I said, she. She thinks I'm an extension of her. So whatever they went through together, whatever she experienced at his hands, she fully believed that maybe that he was gonna be like that to me, or I think that she hated him so much she didn't want him to have any access to me. I don't know. It's grief, right?

[Heather McDonald]

Well, it's the true selfish, narcissistic, family annihilator kind of a thing. So six years later, you're 18, you go to visit her. How does she know that you're there that day? Is there a warning? Or you just go and they, like, say, you have a visitor today.

[Kenna Renee Harper]

In order to visit her, I had to go through an entire process, so I had to get the no contact order lifted. So I had to go to court, I had to address the judge, talk about why I wanted to get it lifted. And unfortunately, in that moment, I wish the judge would have explained a little deeper that I could never get this reinstated, that if I was to lift this, I could never get something as protective. I just thought, okay, I can lift this. I can go get the answers. If she.

[Heather McDonald]

Closure.

[Kenna Renee Harper]

Yes. If she's really as harmful as they say that she is, then I can get it reinstated. Right? So I have to go through that. Then I have to go through getting put on the list to be able to even see her. So she kind of has to know that it's coming because she has to accept it. She has to accept anyone that wants to visit her. And I have to create this Jpay account. So I think there was maybe one email exchange as well before I went to see her. And so there was definitely this buildup, this anticipation. She was telling everyone in the prison that I was coming.

[Heather McDonald]

And she was excited or.

[Kenna Renee Harper]

Yeah. Oh, very excited. I think she still thinks that she has control of me. I think she still thinks that maybe not so much now that I have moved away, had a family, been no contact, but for many, many years, I think she thought that she could still create this narrative and have this control over me.

[Heather McDonald]

So the day comes now. Do you think about how you want to present yourself? Your outfits, your hair, because you're seeing your mom?

[Kenna Renee Harper]

Were those thoughts going at that point? Yes.

[Heather McDonald]

Okay.

[Kenna Renee Harper]

I'm. I'm like, I'm 18. I'm about to. You know, I'm. It's my senior year in high school. I'm. I'm thinking also, like, I guess just from when she had seen me last. I was 10. I wanted to go into that prison, and I wanted her. I don't know, I guess I just wanted her to see who I'd become despite everything. And I look at that photo now. I have, like, an A line, Bob. I don't even know what I was doing back in 2015, but I. I remember. I. I remember the exact shirt I picked on. I wanted to look nice. Like, I wanted. I wanted her to be like, wow, I really missed out on my daughter.

[Heather McDonald]

And before we get to the meeting, when you're at the new high school, you're living with your uncle's family, and you make a new friend on the cheerleading squad or whatever, and they're like, your mom, would you just play along that this woman who's essentially your aunt is your mom? Or would you explain what really happened? Did you confide in anyone as a teenager about your juicy, very juicy, juicy crime story?

[Kenna Renee Harper]

Yeah, so. Because in those, let's say, what was it, eight, nine years? I had moved around a ton, so I'd lived with my aunt and uncle for a couple of years. Then I lived with my dad and his wife. And then I had moved back to Washington. So at this point, I'm in Washington with my aunt and uncle that are on my mom's side and fully emancipated. But throughout those years, there was different levels. Like, I. In elementary school, I had told one person, and when we transitioned into middle school, she told our entire friend group that I was lying. I was making it up for attention that, you know, that is an unbelievable story. No one would believe me. So when that happened, I just kept my mouth shut. I'm like, I'm never going to tell anyone this happened. I'm gonna go to school, I'm gonna put a brave face on, and nobody's gonna know about my life because I didn't want to be defined by the worst thing that had ever happened to me. I also had this inner thought and was so deeply afraid that people would think I was crazy. Like my mom. I. When you're an extension, like when you have parents, you know, you're half your mom, you're half your dad. So I'm here and I have both parents as addicts, both parents with mental health issues. And I'm like, I don't want people to see me as someone who's this crazy person. So I just. I just really separated the two. It's almost like I had to have two different lives and I just had to not talk about it, not share with anyone. As I got older, I started to share little bits and pieces. But even some of my closest friends walking through this now at almost 30, they're like, McKenna, I had no idea, because I would go and cheer, I would go and do this. I would be on speech and debate, I would do all of these things in school, and I wouldn't let anyone in on that part of my life.

[Heather McDonald]

So the moment comes, you're going to walk in and have this meeting. So you're not. There's no glass separating you because it's minimal security. And you're meeting with your mom. She can't hug you, right? Or does she try to hug you?

[Kenna Renee Harper]

No, I think you can. I think she did hug me for a very short amount of time. It had to be, like, a certain way, and it had to be, like, initially. And then you have to sit across from each other.

[Heather McDonald]

And how long was the meeting for?

[Kenna Renee Harper]

3 hours.

[Heather McDonald]

And give me the gist of it, how did you, you know, what was it like?

[Kenna Renee Harper]

I think just going into there, I. I just wanted. I wanted to know her. Why? I think everyone wants to know her. Why? I wanted to know her. Why? I wanted to hear if she was sorry. And I think my main goal was, like, is this someone that has identified that she has a mental health issue that is getting help and that can be rehabilitated? Because I do believe that there are some offenders that can experience that change and that rehabilitation and can make a better life for themselves. And I think that's incredible. What I'm dealing with, with my mom was not that. And that's what I discovered in the months to follow and what I kind of share more on my platforms is I went into that and I got basically excuses. You know, I got, I'm so sorry, but you have to, you have to know that this is what I was dealing with or this is what I was afraid of. But she also didn't really want to talk about the event. She wanted to talk about all of the people that she was in contact with and what, what she was gonna do when she gets out. And now moving forward, what we, what our relationship can look like now. And oh, remember back then, so it was like meeting with this person who is my mom, who I had this deep bond with, but then also this complete stranger who thought we were supposed to pick up right where we left off.

[Heather McDonald]

Wow. So then when you leave, what happened then? She still had a couple years left, right?

[Kenna Renee Harper]

Yes, at this point she had a couple of years left. And that's when I started to realize she was severely unwell still and that she was going to put the blame on anyone but herself. And that's when I started to see the narcissistic tendencies. That's when I started to get the emails. If I wouldn't respond in a timely manner to what she thought, she was angry and she would send these rage emails to me about what would they say?

[Heather McDonald]

Like what? Give me an example.

[Kenna Renee Harper]

So cold and callous that I had become. And she can't believe that the 10 year old daughter she raised would turn out like this. And just if I didn't respond to an email and mind you, I had gone at that point, what was it, eight, nine years? Well, eight years without having a mom. So I wasn't used to having this responsibility or this tie to communicate with her.

[Heather McDonald]

Right.

[Kenna Renee Harper]

I was so used to at this point being so independent. I didn't have either of my parents. So answering to people or like authority like that wasn't in my wheelhouse. So the fact that she felt this ownership over me and this sense of control that I was supposed to email her in a certain time, that I was supposed to have these phone calls that moving forward she was going to dictate how that relationship looked was a huge red flag to me that this person was extremely unwell and they have no accountability for what they did. And moving forward, it was honestly like a, a fear of what's she gonna do?

[Heather McDonald]

Wow. So I want people to, you know, follow you and you know, you're so knowledgeable of all of this. It's such a horrible, unique story, but it's so great to see how well you're doing, you know, living your life. You have a family of your own now.

[Kenna Renee Harper]

Is she.

[Heather McDonald]

She's out now. Is she still trying to contact you?

[Kenna Renee Harper]

Not at this moment, no. I. I kind of talk about it on my socials of what my early to mid-20s looked like when she was released and. And yeah, all of. All of that. Of her constantly trying for years and years. I think the last time was a fake profile on TikTok when I was pregnant. Her trying to message me saying that she was a. A boyfriend, an old boyfriend. And it was a really weird thing. There's no way that that was an ex boyfriend. We lived in a very small town. My aunts and uncles don of this name. They never went to school with this person. The way that it was written sounds a lot like her other emails.

[Heather McDonald]

So she was saying she was an old boyfriend of herself.

[Kenna Renee Harper]

Yeah, is what I believe.

[Heather McDonald]

I see. Okay.

[Kenna Renee Harper]

Making these fake accounts.

[Heather McDonald]

Oh, I know your mom.

[Kenna Renee Harper]

The stories, you know, definitely. So, and.

[Heather McDonald]

And with your sister, whatever happened with her, your relationship and her relationship with the mom.

[Kenna Renee Harper]

Yeah. So I don't share a whole lot on my siblings just because we've all lived very different experiences, especially with having different dads and then just our age gaps. We experienced this tragedy in such a different way. But my sister is. She's doing great. I don't believe she has an relationship with her, but, you know, I know that my mom tries. Not nearly as much as she has tried over the years with me, as far as I know. But I hope she just lets her have peace.

[Heather McDonald]

Well, I so appreciate you being so open and honest, answering every question. And like I said, it's just a fascinating story and thank God it had a happy ending as far as your safety and thriving today. So tell everybody where they can follow you and get more of the story.

[Kenna Renee Harper]

Yes. So I am primarily on TikTok and Instagram. Kenarenee Harper. There's been some pages that have been trying to duplicate my story, which is so silly. So on Instagram, my Facebook is linked directly there, so you can go follow me just directly from my Instagram. It is verified. And then my TikTok as well. Kenarenee Harper. They should be just the same on all platforms.

[Heather McDonald]

Well, thank you for taking the time out. I know you have a young baby and your husband's a doll for accommodating this interview and thank you so much I appreciate it.

[Kenna Renee Harper]

Yes, of course. Thank you. I just hope that people know that there is life after trauma and that they can heal from things like this. You don't have to be stuck or defined by what your parents did or why or what they've done to you that you can make your own path and create a beautiful life after.

[Heather McDonald]

Absolutely. And what I you certainly are the poster child for that. Thank you so much.

[Kenna Renee Harper]

Thank you. Foreign.

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