Bio

Sharon Flanagan was born in 1979. She lived in West Virginia and was reported as being from Inwood, West Virginia.

She married Steven Flanagan. The couple had a son named Steven, whom the boy’s father called a "miracle baby" after two earlier miscarriages.

In 2012 she was in her early thirties. Court reporting and news coverage identify her as living in West Virginia at that time.

Murder Story

Sharon Flanagan was born in 1979. On July 1, 2012, her 2-year-old son, Steven Flanagan, was found in a hotel bathtub in Green Tree, Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. Police say the method of death was drowning. She was arrested the next day.

The Allegheny County Medical Examiner ruled the cause of death as drowning and the manner of death as homicide. Prosecutors said Flanagan killed her son because she was upset that her ex-husband had been granted 70 percent custody. Prosecutors also said she had searched online for phrases such as "leading cause of toddler death" and "why is Casey Anthony so popular" before the incident.

Flanagan was charged with criminal homicide, endangering the welfare of a child, and aggravated assault. At trial, she testified that she had put her son in the bathtub in about a foot of water so he could play. She said she became lost in thought, returned, found the child face down and panicked. She admitted lying to police about trying to lift the child out of the tub.

Witnesses said Flanagan ran through hotel halls shouting for help. A man staying nearby, Dominic Netti, entered the room, lifted the boy from the tub and performed CPR. Netti later wrote that the scene affected him and that he and his girlfriend sought counseling.

At trial the defense argued there were no marks indicating a struggle and that the drowning could have been an accident. The prosecution said a small amount of water can stop a toddler's heart and argued the mother should have acted.

A jury found Sharon Flanagan guilty of first-degree murder in September 2013. On December 8, 2013, she was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. The boy's father, Steven Flanagan, read a victim impact statement at sentencing and held a photograph of his son.