Winter storm delivers beach snow at Oregon coast

The Yaquina Bay Bridge in Newport.

(Randy L. Rasmussen/The Oregonian/File photo)

Jillian McCabe battled mental illness and had tried to commit suicide in the past before she snapped Monday evening and admitted throwing her 6-year-old son over the side of the Yaquina Bay Bridge to his death, family members say.

“We fought so hard to get her good mental help, and it was really rough, and obviously she didn’t get what she needed,” her great aunt, Tanya McCabe, told The Oregonian on Wednesday.

Tanya McCabe declined to comment further, saying her family is working to put out a public statement about the circumstances leading up to London McCabe’s death.

Searchers found the boy's body floating in the bay's waters at 10:23 p.m. Monday, four hours after his mother called 911, stating: "I just threw my son over the Yaquina Bay Bridge."

KGW and NBC News reported that McCabe's relatives tried to get the 34-year-old help as she began to feel overwhelmed caring for a husband with multiple sclerosis and took on more responsibilities caring for her autistic son. They said she struggled with mental illness over the past couple of years, but they never imagined she would hurt her son, a boy she dearly loved.

Jillian McCabe

Jillian McCabe was arraigned Tuesday afternoon on charges of murder, aggravated murder and one count each of first-degree and second-degree manslaughter. McCabe appeared through a video connection from the Lincoln County Jail.

She wore an anti-suicide smock during the hearing. Jail officials told the News Times newspaper that McCabe wore the smock as a precaution. The newspaper reported that McCabe appeared nervous as she answered basic questions on a video screen at the front of a courtroom in the Lincoln County courthouse.

Jillian McCabe's brother-in-law, Andy McCabe, told NBC News that Jillian McCabe had tried to kill herself several times in the past.

London McCabe

"Jillian gave no indication of what she was going to do that night. We were led to believe that she was receiving the care she needed to get better," Andy McCabe said. "We were wrong. And we are carrying the guilt from here on."

Tanya McCabe told NBC that she helped coordinate Jillian McCabe's mental health treatment and that it was a struggle to get inpatient and outpatient treatment for her.

Jillian McCabe, her husband and their son lived in Hood River before moving in with her husband’s parents in Seal Rock along the Oregon coast.

“Due to the limited options in the public health system, we were only able to get her into an outpatient facility in The Dalles,” Andy McCabe told NBC. “It was a limited time allowed. And since they refused to admit her officially to an inpatient facility, she was released to us."

-- Aimee Green