Bonnie Liltz, who was due to report to prison Monday for killing her disabled daughter, has died, and police suspect she took her own life. 
 
 Liltz, 57, was found dead in her apartment in Schaumburg on Saturday evening, according to authorities. It was the same home where in 2015 she administered a fatal dose of medication to her 28-year-old daughter, Courtney, later saying she feared for her daughter’s fate as she faced her own serious health problems. 
 
 “It’s a tragic, tragic end,” her attorney, Tom Glasgow, said Sunday. “She just didn’t want to die in prison.” 
 
 Schaumburg police said they were summoned to the apartment just after 6 p.m. by family members who were concerned that they hadn’t heard from Liltz since late Friday night. There is no evidence of foul play and suicide is suspected, though an investigation continues, said Schaumburg police Sgt. Christy Lindhurst. 
 
 Liltz pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter in her daughter’s death and was sentenced to four years in prison by Cook County Judge Joel Greenblatt, despite prosecutors recommending probation. 
 
 When he sentenced her, Greenblatt said she deserved prison time. “The choice you made that morning was not an act of love. It was a crime.” 
 
 She served a few months but, in an unusual move, was granted bond by appellate court judges, allowing her to receive the medical care her lawyer argued was lacking in prison. 
 
 But last week she was ordered to report to prison Monday after the Illinois Supreme Court declined to hear the appeal of her sentence. 
 
 Her mother, Gladys Liltz, said she was stunned. 
 
 “She couldn't do it. She could not go back to that place again,” said Gladys Liltz, 89, of Elk Grove Village. 
 
 Liltz had adopted Courtney, who couldn’t walk or feed herself and needed constant care, and those who knew Liltz during Courtney’s upbringing praised her commitment to her daughter. But as her own health worsened — she had lingering and serious side effects from a long-ago bout with cancer — Liltz said she became desperate over concern for her daughter’s well-being under someone else’s care. 
 
 Liltz had tried to take her own life after she fed an overdose to her daughter through Courtney’s feeding tube. Liltz then flushed down medication with wine. 
 
 Glasgow said he talked to Liltz earlier Saturday and there was no indication of any plans to take her life. But he said he had documents from two doctors indicating she would die in prison if she was sent back. He said she left a note. 
 
 “It’s very upsetting to me because it could have been avoided,” Glasgow said. 
 
 A representative of the Cook County medical examiner’s office said Liltz’s autopsy was scheduled for Sunday. The cause and manner of her death could be made available as early as the afternoon, if the results are not pending toxicology results, he said. 
 
 "She's at peace now, in heaven with her daughter," Gladys Liltz said. "That's all she ever wanted, was to be with Courtney." 
 
 George Houde is a freelance reporter. Tribune reporters Katherine Rosenberg-Douglas and Angie Leventis Lourgos contributed. 
 
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 A mother who appealed her prison sentence after being convicted of killing her disabled daughter has been found dead in an apparent suicide in Schaumburg. (Published Monday, Nov 27, 2017) 
 
 A Schaumburg mother who appealed her prison sentence after being convicted of killing her disabled daughter has been found dead in an apparent suicide in Schaumburg. 
 
 Bonnie Liltz, the Schaumburg mother who was convicted of killing her severely disabled daughter in 2015, has been found dead at her home, authorities said Sunday. 
 
 Liltz, who was appealing her prison sentence and was scheduled to report to prison on Monday, was found dead after a well-being check by police on Saturday evening. 
 
 Results of an autopsy are pending, but authorities believe that her death was a suicide. 
 
 Liltz was diagnosed with ovarian cancer when she was 18, and she was left with severe intestinal problems. She adopted and raised her daughter despite those obstacles, but when her cancer worsened, she gave her daughter an overdose of pills through her feeding tube, killing her. 
 
 She would later say that she did so because she didn't want her daughter to have to be placed in state care in the event of her death. 
 
 A judge sentenced Liltz to four years in prison for the crime, but after serving three months of her sentence, she was released due to poor health. 
 
 Prosecutors and her attorneys wanted her to remain free, but a Cook County judge disagreed, ruling that she be sent back to prison to fulfill the rest of her sentence. 
 
 She appealed the ruling to the Illinois Supreme Court, who declined to take up the case. ||||| The suburban woman who caused her disabled daughter’s death when she fed her an overdose of medication must report to prison on Monday to finish her sentence. 
 
 Bonnie Liltz of Schaumburg was given a four-year prison term last year after pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter in the 2015 death of her 28-year-old daughter Courtney. 
 
 But in a highly unusual move, Liltz was granted bond by appeals judges and released after spending about 70 days in a downstate prison. Her lawyer cited the fragility of her health, saying he feared she will die in prison and claiming her jailers weren’t meeting her medical needs. 
 
 Those fears have been renewed now that Cook County Judge Joel Greenblatt, who imposed the original sentence, orderedLiltz to surrender Monday to Cook County Jail, from which she will be transferred to a state prison. 
 
 Liltz adopted Courtney when she was 5 years old, and supporters say Liltz was a caring and conscientious single mother who provided 24-hour care to her daughter, who had cerebral palsy and was unable to walk or feed herself. 
 
 But Liltz became increasingly desperate as her own condition declined — her ailments include severe intestinal damage from decadesold cancer treatment — and she has said she was motivated out of fear for what would happen to Courtney after her own death. 
 
 Bonnie Liltz Facebook Bonnie Liltz and her daughter, Courtney, shown together at Christmastime in 2014. Bonnie Liltz and her daughter, Courtney, shown together at Christmastime in 2014. (Bonnie Liltz Facebook) (Bonnie Liltz Facebook) 
 
 After administering medication to her daughter through her feeding tube, Liltz, now 57, took some of the pills herself, washing them down with wine in a suicide attempt. 
 
 Some legal observers expected her to get probation given the circumstances, and even prosecutors recommended probation. But Greenblatt said she deserved prison time. 
 
 "The choice you made that morning was not an act of love. It was a crime,” Greenblatt said when he sentenced her. 
 
 Liltz exhausted the possibilities of getting relief through the courts when the Illinois Supreme Court in October declined to consider the appeal of her sentence. 
 
 Her lawyer, Tom Glasgow, has requested that Gov. Bruce Rauner commute her sentence. Glasgow said a hearing on that has been set for January, but the judge declined to delay the remainder of her sentence any longer. 
 
 Liltz, who again appeared gaunt and extremely thin, tearfully said after the hearing that she did not receive all of her medications during her previous stint at Logan Correctional Center. She said she believes the judge hates her. She has said she regrets the actions she took to end her daughter’s life. 
 
 Glasgow asked Greenblatt on Tuesday to order the Illinois Department of Corrections to ensure that Liltz receive all the “unique medical attention” she needs. 
 
 Greenblatt replied: “I’m not directing IDOC to do anything of the sort. I will ask them to assess her condition and provide care to her to the best of their ability.” The judge also said it’s up to IDOC to determine where Liltz serves her sentence. 
 
 George Houde is a freelance reporter. 
 
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 SCHAUMBURG, Ill. — Bonnie Liltz, who was sentenced for four years in prison for giving her disabled daughter a fatal overdose of medication has committed suicide. 
 
 Her attorney, Thomas Glascow, said Liltz committed suicide on Saturday by overdosing on pills because, according to a note she left behind, she didn’t want to die in jail. 
 
 Glascow said he had been in contact with her on Friday and she seemed fine after spending the holiday with her mom and sister. He said that she was always in pain and had lost more weight. She was down from 98 pounds to 84 pounds and her BMI was only 15. 
 
 Liltz was expected to report to prison on Monday. 
 
 Liltz said when her health began to fail, she worried her 28-year-old daughter, Courtney, who had cerebral palsy, would end up in an institution, and not get the care she needed. So, she wanted to commit a murder-suicide with pills. 
 
 Courtney died, but Liltz survived.
– The Chicago Tribune described it as a "highly unusual move": An Illinois woman was granted bond by appellate court judges last year after beginning a four-year prison term related to the death of her severely disabled adult daughter. Now, just days before Bonnie Liltz was to report back to prison, she apparently took her own life. Liltz pleaded guilty in May 2016 to involuntary manslaughter, claiming she was worried about what would happen to Courtney, 28, if Liltz's own health issues killed her; NBC Chicago reports she had ovarian cancer at age 18, and it caused serious and lingering intestinal issues. "I felt the only place she would be safe would be in heaven with me," she told the court. She spent 70 days in prison but was released after her lawyer argued she wasn't receiving the proper medical care. But Liltz, 57, was ordered to surrender Monday after the state Supreme Court decided not to take up her case; she was found dead Saturday. The Tribune reports police were called to the apartment—the same one where Liltz put powder from broken-up medicine capsules into Courtney's feeding tubes, then into her own wine in an apparent suicide attempt—by concerned family members. "It's a tragic, tragic end," says her attorney, Tom Glasgow, who adds that she did leave a note. "She just didn't want to die in prison." Police say there is no sign of foul play, but an investigation is ongoing. Though they haven't released details, Glasgow said she overdosed on pills, per WGN. Liltz's mother, Gladys, says her daughter got what she wanted: "She's at peace now, in heaven with her daughter." Read more on the case here.